Identity Crisis
by New Game Plus
Summary: All he wants to do is become a Pokemon Trainer. All Team Rocket wants to do is kill him. All the Marshalls want is to keep him safe. A tale of a boy in the witness protection program in the world of Pokemon and how he just wants to be himself. Currently being revamped.*
1. What Children Dream Of

**Identity Crisis**

**By: Aeroga**

**Disclaimer: Pokemon is a property of Game Freak.**

**Ownership: I own the idea of this fic and the main character plus anyone who you may not recognize. **

**Full Summary: This is the tale of a nameless boy who lives under the Witness Protection Program in the world of Pokemon. All he wants to be is a Pokemon Trainer but for the past six years he's been unable to follow his dreams since the marshalls believe he is still in danger. He puts in place a plan to help him escape the clutches of the Marshall service to become what he's truly destined to be, even if it may just get him killed.**

**ARC I****: Escape From Unova**

**Chapter One: What Children Dream Of**

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><p>"Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind. Ain't life unkind?"<p>

-The Rolling Stones

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><p>When I was no older than ten, I had dreams. Like most kids my age I wanted to be a Pokemon trainer. I wanted to make a name for myself. Take on the Gym Challenge and if I got lucky, the Elite Four. I didn't want to be another trainer that would slowly disappear into the sidelines. Unfortunately for me, I never got the chance to prove myself to the world when my life was turned upside down and my dreams became nothing but.<p>

July 14th had barely begun when I had decided to go downstairs for a drink. I spent a long time in bed wondering if I should go downstairs into the darkness and risk getting a drink. I was afraid of being downstairs alone. I was convinced that there were Haunter living in the shadows but my parents reassured me it was nothing more than my imagination playing tricks on me and I sure hoped it was. Of course, that didn't fully convince me that there weren't ghost Pokemon living in our house. I carefully tiptoed down the stairs in an effort not to awaken my parents. Halfway down the steps I noticed that the front door was wide open and immediately knew something was wrong. I should've went back upstairs to hide but I was curious as to why. To this day I regret it.

I didn't bother to shut the door as I walked passed and headed into the kitchen. I heard a muffled sound off to my left coming from somewhere within the den. At first I didn't think much about it, but after a second or so of actually racking over it in my brain, I decided to go check whatever it was out. Part of me was hoping that it'd be some ghost Pokemon throwing my mother's china from Unova around. Another part of me feared that it would be a burglar stealing my mother's china. I peered around the corner of the counters, careful to stay out of view.

My heart leapt in my chest.

My parents were bound together with rope and duct tape. My mother had tears streaming down her face and my dad was scowling, holding as best as he could onto my mother's hand. They had been beaten pretty bad. Both of their faces were badly bruised and covered in blood. My mother's eye was swollen up to the point that it looked like it would explode.

"We don't like traitors," A tall man with balding black hair and hard brown eyes said, holding a gun up to my mother's head. He pressed it playfully against her head. Both her and my father began thrashing around in their bounds. Beside him two men dressed in a black and white outfit with a large red "R" printed on the front of shirt, cackled. "Did you really think that you could leave Team Rocket that easily?"

I didn't want to believe that my parents were involved with Team Rocket. Though afterwards when I really thought about it, it all made sense. The strange work hours. The new Pokemon they would have whenever they got back from one of their business trips... Why hadn't I seen it before?

"And to think that you would even go to the police about us. To rat us out. I've told you and so many others before, our reach extends far beyond you low level thieves. How else do you think we've managed to get away with so much? With the right money, anyone can be swayed. Or if not money, their family," The man said tapping the gun against my mother's shoulder.

All of that took place in a matter of seconds. I tiptoed to the other side of the kitchen where the phone was and picked it up, hands trembling. Even before I had the chance to call the police, a loud gunshot went off and a muffled scream echoed the room. I struggled not to drop the phone and ran back to the other side to see what the fate was of my parents.

My mother lied limp in her bounds and my father, who had remained strong for so long, started crying. I did too, but quickly put my hands over my mouth to keep myself from being detected. I watched in horror as the man held the gun to my father's head and pulled the trigger. I sobbed softly into my hands. It would be the last time I ever cried.

"Find their son. I know they have a son," The man said turning in my direction. I quickly scrambled out of view and dove into the living room, squeezing behind a couch to hide.

When I was sure they were upstairs, I clambered from my hiding place and ran to the front door, careful not to alert them. I ran the fastest I could down the street not bothering to look back. That was the last time I ever saw my house…and my parents.

Turns out, I became the star witness in a trail they had been building against the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni. Oh, and some kid named Red was the other star witness. Apparently he had taken them down through sheer brute force. It was hard to believe considering he was around my age.

I probably stood in front of Giovanni about 13 times. I could never bring myself to cry about my parent's deaths or to cry about them in general. Mostly I think it was because I felt betrayed. How long had they been lying to me? They weren't working for some exporting company. They were Rockets. And what did that make me? A son of two dead Rockets who decided to turn good for their son? The only questioned that really irked me more than that was if my parents had really done all the horrible things people had said on the news, talk shows, and even on trial. After I really racked it over in my ten year old brain and began matching up the supposed crimes they had committed with the events at home... I realized my parents were monsters just like the rest of Team Rocket. They weren't special or the exception.

Anyway, Giovanni was sent to jail and that was when I was placed in witness protection without much of a choice. I'm sure there were a lot of Rockets that wanted to put a bullet in my head or just feed me to their Pokemon for kicks and giggles.

I've had so many names, lived in so many houses, and so many different cities, in different countries. Every single time ended with my cover being blown. A handful of times it was by the Rockets themselves, just so happening to be passing through the city. Those handful of times ended in them recognizing me and sending their Nidoking or some other scary Pokemon to capture and/or kill me. Sometimes I barely escaped alive. One time I told a girl who I believed to be my friend who I really was, and it turned out that her parents were Rockets. Just my luck, right? Another time I even purposely told someone who I really was just because I didn't like Solaceon Town or the people that lived there.

Of course, a lot of them had been by accident. Sometimes I forgot if I was Roland Turner from Opelucid City or Henry Foss from Fallarbor Town. Sometimes I even said my real name without realizing it.

After a while I just stopped caring. Just because it was too much for me to remember a new lie. People often asked me why I didn't have any Pokemon and I had to make up some intricate lie. Everything that came out of my mouth when talking to another person was a lie.

And hell did I want a Pokemon. Every time I asked one of my caretakers for one they'd tell me it was too much of a risk for me to have one. They couldn't change the identity of a Pokemon and if a Rocket saw me with a Pokemon I would have to release it so they wouldn't recognize me. I begged and begged, telling them I would be careful but they always said the same thing. I grew to resent everyone with a Pokemon and my caretakers, even more.

But now that I'm 16 years old I'm determined to get away from this life. I'm going to become a Pokemon Trainer. Even if I might get killed while venturing the world by a wild Pokemon or some Rockets, I don't care. I'm sick of not being who I'm meant to be. I don't care if I don't become some big badass trainer. I don't care if I don't make it to the Elite Four. I just want to be given the chance to fail and die.

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><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>I thought of this while I was playing Pokemon Black. The idea seems original so I've just decided to flow with it. The first three or four chapters will take place in Unova and then the rest of the story will be in Johto. Also this isn't a novelization of the games.

**Next Chapter: **The main character puts forth his plan to leave Unova and start his journey in Johto. Unfotrtunately the only thing holding him back is the fact he still doesn't have a Pokemon.


	2. Pinwheel Forest Mayhem

**Identity Crisis**

**Chapter Two: Pinwheel Forest Mayhem**

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><p>"Life happens when you're making other plans."<p>

-John Lennon

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><p>When I was 12 I lived in Johto for about two weeks before the Marshalls deemed it unsafe for me to live in. Apparently Mahogany Town had been one of Team Rocket's strongholds. I loved the place with every fiber of my being. The people there were great and the gym leader, I aspired to be like him. Pryce was a strong man despite his age. He used to take me and a bunch of other kids down to Lake of Rage when he wasn't overseeing the gym. I learned how to fish and even made my first friend. I couldn't remember his name for the life of me though. I didn't want to leave to some city where people were cold and suspicious of everyone else. Mahogany had been the first real place I <em>wanted<em> to call home. The first place that I would try so hard not to mess up. But, of course, the Marshalls didn't care. So I ended up being moved to the Sinnoh region. I hated everything about the Sinnoh region, especially Solaceon Town. During my time in Solaceon Town I got to watch hopeful 10 year olds pass through the town. That was when I concocted a plan that would get me on my rightful path to being a trainer in the one place I actually had good memories, Johto. I planned every detail. I knew I wouldn't be staying in Sinnoh for long and there was no way in hell they would take me back to Johto or Kanto. So that left Hoenn and Unova. I knew at one point I would be in Unova. But when, I guessed some time around my 15th or 16th birthday. I kept all the money the Marshalls ever gave me and hid it in my Spoink Bank. Whenever I did get to Unova, I would take a test for my trainer's license. I would capture a Pokemon, any Pokemon, there and then leave to Johto, the place they would least expect me to be if I valued my life.

I only stayed in Sinnoh for about a year and a half before some new group had emerged named Team Galactica. The Marshalls had told me that the leader of Galactica was in cohorts with Giovanni and I was moved again. I had no problem with that, until they moved me to Pacfidlog Town in Hoenn. It was sheer hell. The entire idea of the fact that someone would build a town on wooden rafts just made me feel uneasy. Sometimes I would take an unexpected bath with Sharpedo and whatever other Pokemon inhabited the waters. A lot of the time I was afraid to go to sleep because I was afraid that the raft would break and the house would plunge to the bottom of the ocean.

Then four weeks ago, out of the blue, they moved me to Nimbasa City in Unova. One of the Legendaries must have heard my pleas to get me out of that town. As soon as I got there, behind Marshall Holcomb's back I applied for my trainer license under one of the many aliases I had gone by. The good thing about Unova is that you don't a need a parent or guardians consent to get one either. I passed, thank Arceus, and they gave me my very first Pokedex, Pokeball, and trainer's license. They offered to give me one of the regions starters, but I declined. I'm going to catch myself a Pokemon. Not a Deerling though… Those things scare me.

And tomorrow is the day I go out to Pinwheel Forest and catch a Venipede.

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><p>"Wake up, kid," Marshall Holcomb said as he tapped his fist gently against the door.<p>

I groaned and pulled my cover over my head. I don't know why he insisted on waking me up before he left for work. "Just a few more minutes…"

"No. Get up. I'm leaving for work and I want to make sure you eat breakfast before I go, so get up," He said, wiggling the locked door knob violently.

Marshall Fletcher Holcomb was actually a really decent guy, well compared to the other Marshalls he was. I think he was in his late twenties or early thirties. He had short, shaggy black hair and brown eyes. His face was always shaved clean, not leaving a single stray hair. Whenever I saw him he was usually wearing a black suit with a police badge on the right upper hand side of the suit. He always kept everything neat, and I mean absolutely everything. The towels in the bathroom had to be just right or he flipped out. Even his Pokemon, an Arcanine and Vaporeon, knew not to mess anything up. Anyway, besides suffering from OCD, he was actually a really friendly person.

I crawled out of bed, wiped my eyes, and complained about whatever possibly came to mind. I shuffled over lazily to the door and unlocked it. Fletcher opened the door almost immediately and ended up hitting me in the face.

"Ow!" I yelled, holding my nose, "What the hell?"

Fletcher smiled at me then grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled me out of the room and into the kitchen. On the table was a plate of eggs and bacon and a glass of orange juice. Fletcher noticed that first four days I had been living with him, that I didn't eat breakfast. The idea of a growing teenage boy not eating breakfast seemed like blasphemy to him. So everyday since he made sure I did.

"Eat all of it," He said as I sat down at the table and took a fork in my left hand. "I'm leaving Lily with you today. Take her out with you when you go out and be sure to feed her or she will be most unkind. And remember to be home before eight or I will come looking for you."

I nodded my head slowly, trying to pretend that I wasn't seething with joy. What were my chances that I'd have help trying to catch my starter Pokemon? Lily would weaken that poor unsuspecting Venipede and I'd catch it with one Pokeball. I figured Lily would listen to me. I mean she was a guard Pokemon, right? She was meant to protect so she had to listen to commands easily.

Fletcher patted me on the back and told me to have a nice, hopefully uneventful, day before he disappeared through the front door.

As soon as I heard the car pull off, I started to get up to throw away my untouched food since the last thing I wanted was food before I headed off to Pinwheel Forest, but Lily put her fish finned tail on my lap and hissed at me.

"Okay. Okay. I get it. No need to get snippy with me," I sighed and sat back down and stuffed the remainder of the food in my mouth. I rolled my eyes at her showed her the plate when I was done.

"Vapor!" She removed her tail from my lap, allowing me to get up. She sure reminded me of her trainer.

"Sheesh…" I sighed, as I patted her on the head. She rubbed gently against my leg as I placed the dishes in the sink. She trailed behind me as I headed up to my room to take a shower. She hopped on top of my bed and curled up in my blankets. I didn't even bother telling her to get off.

Once I was done taking a shower, I put on a plain black long sleeve shirt. Over that I put on a black vest with red zippers. I slipped into a pair of faded blue jeans and red shoes with straps. Lily watched me the entire time, occasionally throwing a "Vaporeon" or some form of it here and there.

I dug my hand in between my mattress for the Pokedex and Pokeball I had received from the lab. Lily stood up to get a better look at it and when she seemed to recognize it, she hit me in the face with her tail.

"Lily, you're so violent…" I moaned, pushing her tail away from me. This day wasn't going to end well if she kept assaulting me. I put the Pokedex and Pokeball into a hidden compartment in the inner side of my vest. "Well, c'mon Lily. You're going to help me capture a Pokemon."

"Va…?" She tilted her head to the side.

"I don't know if that's a yes or a no… but I'm gonna pretend it's a yes. Now come on," I shrugged, walking out of the room. Lily followed promptly behind me.

Lily, for some strange reason, decided to attach herself to my leg as soon as I stepped onto the front porch. I nearly tripped over her tail just because it was pretty uncalled for. "Lily, what the hell?" I snapped. She ignored me and proceeded to scan the area- eyes moving rapidly from side to side. Her tail swished behind her too. And for a moment I thought I was in danger until she detached herself from me and trotted off down the steps. I made sure to the doors before following after her.

Nimbasa City was actually a really nice place to live in. It had lots of sights to see such as the Ferris wheel, Musical Theather, Big Stadium, and Small Court. I usually spent my time on or hanging around the Ferris Wheel. There was something about it that was just… captivating to me. I especially liked going there at night when it was all lit up and couples would get on it.

Oh and let's not forget the Gear Station, home to the Battle Subway. I often went there to see what kinds of trainers had the guts to go through it since I heard it was brutal. Of course since I didn't have any Pokemon I couldn't go onto the train so instead I would wait until they came back from the challenge to see if they won or lost. I could tell if they won or lost judging by the way they would hold themselves afterwards or by the expressions on their faces. I hadn't seen a lot of winners.

I took a bus to Castelia. Then I had to take a taxi to the edge of the city. The cab driver turned out to be a very talkative man. Lily even tried to engage in the conversation despite the fact she didn't speak the same language as us.

By the time I reached Skyarrow Bridge it was still early in the morning but it was already packed with commuters, travelers, and trainers alike. Most of them seemed to be trainers. Some of them were stopped off to the side, pitting their Pokemon against one another. Normally I wouldn't pass up on an offer to see a Gabite and a Milotic go at it, but my main focus was on catching that Venipede.

I hoped that no one would challenge me to a battle. I wasn't sure how Fletcher would react if I came home with an unconscious Vaporeon in my arms. Just thought sent a shudder down my spine. Though it was hard to imagine Fletcher getting mad over anything other than moved cups or the forks being placed with the spoons.

Thankfully I made it to Pinwheel Forest without any incident. Lily became very weary the moment we stepped in. I patted her head in an attempt to get her to stop whining. She licked my hand and nudged me forward with her tail.

"We're looking for a Venipede, okay?" I told her as we pushed through some tall grass. I'd never been in tall grass before that moment. Just the entire ordeal was riveting. The fact that any moment a Pokemon could attack me was exciting. In reality, it really shouldn't have been. I could get paralyzed or poisoned, even worse, Lily could and I didn't have the slightest idea on how to cure her. Of course at the time, it didn't cross my mind.

I passed some Sewaddle and its evolution, a few Petilil, a few Pidove, some Pansages, and a Cottonee. Not a single Venipede. I wasn't going to settle for anything other than what I came to the forest for.

The farther we traveled into the forest, the foggier it got. I shrugged it off. I would leave as soon as I got that Venipede. I don't really know what was my fascination with the violet colored bug Pokemon. None of the Pokemon around Nimbasa were interesting. Venipede wasn't even that awesome either in retrospect. To find something like Deino or Yamask, which both had awesome evolutions, I would have had to venture further than a day's walk. I couldn't make it there and back before Fletcher came home and the last thing I wanted was a bunch of Marshalls looking for me. At least Pinwheel Forest was only an hour and a half away from Fletcher's house.

"Vaporeon!" Lily cried out suddenly.

"W-What, Lily?" I asked, cautiously taking a step back.

"Vapor!" She nudged at my leg. I just stared at her blankly. "Reon…" She hissed once she realized I had no clue what she was trying to tell me. She shot her water gun in front of me.

And there it was. A Venipede.

"Yes!" I cheered and threw my arms around Lily's neck. "Thank you, Lily!" She licked my cheek. "All right Lily," I said as I got to my feet. I pointed at the unsuspecting Venipede who, as far as I could tell was too busy chewing on a leaf to even acknowledge our existence. "hit it…uhm… softly. Weaken it just enough so I can catch it, okay?"

Lily nodded her head and slowly crept forward. I waited with anticipation as she got ready to pound. I was finally going to capture my first Pokemon. When she did, the Venipede didn't see it coming… and neither did a Cottonee who I didn't see until the last second. Lily hit the Venipede with its paw and at the same time smacked the Cottonee as hard as it could with its tail. The Cottonee disappeared within behind some bushes while the Venipede struggled to get back on its feet.

"Great job, Lily!" I smiled and pulled the Pokeball out of my pocket. I pressed the button in the middle of the Pokeball for it to expand. "Well, here goes nothing…" I threw it with all my might at the struggling bug.

But then, the most unexpected thing happened. The Cottonee that Lily had disposed of only moments before floated back and fell right in front of the Venipede.

"No!" I screamed as my Pokeball hit the giant cotton ball. Even the wild Venipede and Lily looked shocked as it disappeared into the bright white light. The ball shook violently.

_Oh Arceus, no! Escape the ball! Escape the ball!_

Much to my demise, the ball stopped moving and a loud beep rang out. I had caught the Cottonee.

"What the hell!" I cried out, grabbing a fistful of my hair and pulling.

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><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>I'm not really great at writing in past tense. I was going to write this in first person present tense but figured I should try something new. Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this chapter. A special thanks to OceanSpiral for being my first reviewer. And if you haven't read her fic _Spirited_, you really should.


	3. The Name Game

**Identity Crisis**

**Chapter Three: The Name Game**

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><p>"Pleased to meet you, won't you guess my name?"<p>

-The Rolling Stones

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><p>My first Pokemon had been one that I didn't mean to capture and to be quite honest, I was far from happy. I couldn't help but be disappointed. It was like telling a kid they would get an XBOX on their birthday but instead they receive some new clothes.<p>

I didn't have the right to complain about my new Pokemon. I didn't want to go through all that trouble of having to get another Pokeball or two to catch a Venipede. I was tired and I was sure Lily was too. I would have to deal with this one way or another, whether or not I liked the situation I was in.

Lily hit her paw against the Pokeball and it rolled between my feet. She looked at me expectantly. I had a feeling she would be pretty mad if I released it back into the wild. So I bent down and took the Pokeball into my hands._ I should wait a while before sending it out… _I would obviously have to be on good terms with Cottonee before I left Unova. It would be far too dangerous for me to go off with a disobedient Pokemon. I could get killed by a wild Pokemon or worse- it could kill me.

Now was as good as time as any to get acquainted with my new Pokemon. I needed to register it and give it nickname. I searched my pockets for my Pokedex. I pulled it out then flipped it open. After a few button clicks, I was at the Pokemon registration page. I pressed Cottonee's Pokeball against a small indentation.

Cottonee, like its name, was a cotton ball that floated wherever the wind took it. All I needed was a Pokemon that had a chance of being forever lost with a slight breeze. It knew three attacks; Absorb, Leech Seed, and Growth. I figured that Absorb and Leech Seed would come in handy when its HP was low and I couldn't make it to a Pokemon Center right away.

Also, according to the Pokedex, "it" was a he. That made naming him a thousand times easier. I hadn't even considered that I might catch a female Pokemon. The name I had been saving for Venipede was Spiral, but it definitely didn't fit Cottonee. I stared long and hard at the Pokeball and Pokedex to trying to come up with a name.

Lily curled up by my legs for a few minutes, then trudged off into the forest to find food- what I hoped would not turn out to be a dead Pokemon.

Most of the other names I had thought of, didn't fit Cottonee. I bit my lip and thought for a long time until I had come down to two names; Rhyme and Wiz. For a while I considered naming him Pan after the Greek god of nature, but immediately decided against it. Many people probably used the whole Greek god system to name their Pokemon. I certainly didn't want my first Pokemon to have a common name.

_Why not let Cottonee choose? _I expanded the Pokeball and tossed it to the ground. Cottonee came out looking, much to my surprise, terrified. He was on the verge of tears. I coughed loudly to get his attention and he immediately spun around to look at me.

"H-Hey?" I waved, bending down in front of him. A tiny part of me was afraid that, even though I hadn't wanted him, he wouldn't accept me as his trainer. But that wasn't the case. As soon as Lily came back rolling a few berries towards me, Cottonee began bawling and flew at my face.

Lily took this as an attack and lunged for the crying cotton ball on my face.

"Li-Lily, no!" I shrieked, pulling Cottonee off of my face. I rolled to the side to avoid being pounced on. "Lily! Wiz is just scared!"

And then I realized that I had just named him. Lily hung her head low and repeated "Vaporeon" in what appeared to be a form of apology. Wiz didn't take this as well as I expected him to and dug himself deeper into my vest. Lily pushed a pink berry towards me. I picked it up.

"Wiz," I said. He was far too busy crying to notice I had said his name. "Wiz," I tried saying it more firmly, but it still fell on deaf ears. I pulled him away from me and held the pink berry out to him. He looked at Lily, rather teary eyed, then down at the berry, then up at me. "Go on…" I pushed my hand closer to him.

"Vapor!" Lily cried out.

"Nee!" Wiz cautiously bit a piece of the berry then turned back at Lily, terrified. When he noticed she hadn't moved from her place, he proceeded to eat the rest of the berry happily.

I patted the two Pokemon on the head. I was pretty grateful that Wiz didn't hate me. Well, at least I was pretty sure that such an innocent Pokemon as him couldn't hate anything.

When Wiz was done eating I decided to let him know that I was his trainer. "Wiz," I said, holding him to eye level, "You probably have no clue what I'm saying, but whatever. I'm your new trainer. You're my first Pokemon. I know that traveling with me will probably turn out to be dangerous but… as long as we're a team, then we'll be all right." I really wanted to believe that Wiz, or any Pokemon that I would capture in the future, would protect me from whatever came our way. Be it Ex-Team Rocket members, wild Pokemon, or just people in general.

"Cotto- Nee!" Wiz rocked back and forth in my grip.

I glanced at my watch and found that I only had a few hours to get back home. Fletcher would suspect something if I came home late.

"Sorry, Wiz. I have to return you. I promise I'll let you out tomorrow," I apologized and returned him back to his ball. I grabbed the berries and pocketed them, along with Wiz's Pokeball and my Pokedex.

By the time I had made it back to Nimbasa City it was dark out. I thought about going to the Ferris Wheel with Lily but I was far too hungry and my legs ached from all the walking I had done. Even Lily was beginning to lag behind. I tried to pick her up to carry her, but she was too heavy. I wished that Fletcher had left her Pokeball with me.

When we got home I immediately hid Wiz's ball and my Pokedex under my mattress. Lily laid herself lazily over the edge of my bed and almost instantly fell asleep. I decided not to bother her and instead went to fix a meal for Fletcher and I.

I was so happy that I was probably infecting everything I touched with rainbows and keldeos The disappointment had long worn off. I was so excited to leave Unova and start my journey. I would work hard to collect those gym badges. I would not return home until I did. Wherever home might be the next time I stepped foot in this country.

I made a salad for Fletcher, since he was a vegetarian, and a fruit bowl for me, even though I wasn't one.

Fletcher was shocked to find that I had made him dinner when he finally walked through the door.

"Did you poison it?" He asked, eyeing the salad and I suspiciously.

"N-no!" I stammered, taken aback by the question.

"I was just kidding, kid," He laughed, "Calm down." He patted me on the back, then took a seat on the opposite side of the table. "So what did you and Lily do today?"

"Walked places," I replied, putting a piece of pinap berry in my mouth.

"Good. Good. I figured she'd want to go for a walk. Been far too busy lately," He smiled. He scanned the room for her. "Where is she anyway?"

"Sleeping on my bed."

"Aww, she's warmed up to you already," He laughed, "Now you just have to get to know Wilfred."

My face drained of color. I was pretty sure Wilfred, Fletcher's Arcanine, didn't like me one bit. I tried petting him, feeding him, and playing with him to win him over, but every time I got close he would growl at me. I didn't understand why he didn't like me. Maybe I was going about it wrong. But whatever the case, I certainly didn't trust him around Wiz.

"Uh… you know… I really like hanging out with Lily," I said lowering my eyes.

Fletcher groaned and put his fork down. "I know Willie can be a bit… difficult at times, but you have to keep trying with him. When I was but a wee laddie I received Wilfred as a present from my uncle. The two of us did not click. In fact, he attacked me as soon as I pulled him out the ball. Worst experience ever, but I never gave up on him. Another person could've been his trainer. They probably wouldn't have been as easy going as me," He crunched down on a piece of lettuce before continuing on, "I earned his trust eventually. But when and where, I don't exactly know. Maybe he had trusted me for a while. Anyway, one day, while I was out training with him, a wild Scolipede attacked me from behind and poisoned me. Wilfred beat the Pokemon down and pulled me to a main road where a trainer eventually found me. Willie saved my life."

I sat in awe of his story. "Wow…" was the only word that could sum up what I was thinking.

"Yeah, I know. I hardly believed the doctors when they told me _my _Growlithe, _my _Wilfred, had saved my life," He smiled fumbling around with the great ball in his hand.

"How'd you get Lily?" I asked after a long moment of silence.

"Oh, a few years back I had noticed this Eevee hanging about my first apartment. I started feeding her and she eventually warmed up to me. She would sneak into my apartment by tearing the a hole in the screen and would cuddle up next to me in bed. The first time she'd done it though, I thought she was a burgular. When I discovered it was her, boy was I relieved," He laughed heartily.

"So you were a afraid of a little Eevee, in other words," I asked, scratching my chin.

"Only for a moment!"

The two of us burst out laughing.

"It must be rough not being allowed to have any Pokemon," Fletcher whispered, suddenly. He looked pretty apologetic. I wondered for a brief second if the real reason he had left Lily with me was so I could have some experience with Pokemon. "But one day, kid, you'll get your chance. And when you do, even if I may not be around to congratulate you, I'm sure you'll turn out to be a great trainer."

I couldn't help but smile at his words. He reached across the table and ruffed up my brown hair.

For a moment, I thought about telling him that I had caught a Pokemon and was planning on leaving after a little bit of training, but I figured he _was_ a Marshall. He probably would've turned out to be just like the rest of them. I wasn't ready to give up Wiz. Even though I had just captured him, I knew it would be teary goodbye and I would never forgive them for it.

"I know I will…" I smiled, trying to toss away those thoughts, "and when I do… I'll show you all of my amazing Pokemon."

"I'm sure you will…"

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><p><strong>Aeroga:<strong> Another uneventful chapter. Things will start progressing in chapter five, don't worry. I've actually mapped out the entire story with a two or three "Arcs". I'm not sure what other Pokemon he'll be capturing just yet though…

**Next Chapter:** The main character takes Lily and Wiz out to Driftveil Drawbridge for a little training exercise. Unfortunately, he catches the eye of a trainer.


	4. Win Loss Ratio

**Identity Crisis**

**Chapter Four: Win-Loss Ratio**

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><p>"So if you're calling me out, then count me out."<p>

-Taking Back Sunday

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><p>Despite Fletcher's speech the night before, the next day I was saddled with Lily again. Quite frankly I was glad. Wiz would've thrown another one of his crying fits if he saw Wilfred. If Lily made him cry, there was no telling what he would with Willie and I certainly did not want to find out either.<p>

The night before as I laid in bed staring up at the ceiling, too excited to go to sleep, I decided that I would train Wiz a bit before heading off to Johto. He didn't have to be particularly strong, just used to battling so that I would feel safe knowing that he wouldn't chicken out when I was about to get mauled by a Urasring.

Lily would be back up just in case things went awry. I had a feeling they would go very wrong, even with her help.

I left the house a little after Fletcher had gone to work with Lily at my side, who was acting like a guard dog. I kept Wiz in his Pokeball hidden deep within my pockets along with my Pokedex. I didn't care if anyone saw me with Lily. The last thing I needed to be doing was flaunting around Wiz. In the city, Fletcher had friends- Marshall friends at that. If they saw me with Wiz my plan would be ruined. At least on the routes I could hide within the brush from trainers or just people in general.

My destination for today was Route 5. I'd read on the internet that Route 5 mainly consisted of harmless Solosis, Trubbish, and the OCD rodent, Minccino. The only real threat there was the Liepards. I heard they were vicious cats, often sneaking up on their prey from behind. I hoped that I would not run into one of them, though they would probably give Wiz a decent amount of experience points. Still, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

Route 5 was the Nimbasa-Driftveil Drawbridge entrance. The Gym Leader of Driftveil usually kept the Drawbridge up to allow ships destined for other regions like Hoenn or Kanto to pass through without having to reel it back up every hour or so. As a result not many people from Nimbasa visited Driftveil and vice versa. The only thing that brought people to Route 5 were the street performers. Despite being early in the morning, people were already crowding around the performers "ooohing" and " "aahhhing". One time I watched a man and his Magby shoot fire from their mouths. I was in awe for days. A food van was parked on the side handing out coffee and sandwiches.

I retreated into the brush far away from anyone so I wouldn't be seen by passing trainers or anyone else for that matter. When I was positive I was out of eyesight, I released Wiz from his ball… and he immediately started crying. _Oh Arceus…_

He must've thought he was alone, because he started crying even more when he saw that he was in an unfamiliar environment. Lily looked up at me, unimpressed by the whole situation, then trotted over to him and tapped him lightly on the back. He immediately swiveled around in our direction and his frightened expression softened as soon as he saw us.

"Cotton… Cottonee?" He seemed to be asking me something, most likely unaware of the fact I didn't speak the same language as him.

"Uhm…" I scratched my head unsure of how to go about this, "Wiz, we're going to get you trained up… okay?" Horror swept over his face taking me aback. "I-I mean… We're going to make you into a… a…" I tried to think of what Cottonee evolved into, but I didn't have the slightest clue. I honestly thought they grew into a bigger cotton ball that crushed everything in its path. At the simple thought of that I shuddered. _Should probably check that out later… _"There isn't a better way to tell you that you are going to battle other Pokemon is there?"

"Vaaaaa!" Lily cried out suddenly, grabbing my attention. As I turned toward her, I became aware of a Liepard lunging at me. I let out a panicked scream as I dove to the ground beside Wiz. Lily didn't take too kindly to me being attacked and threw her head back as the Liepard went for another attack and unleashed five strong clear blue rings at it. The Liepard was knocked off balance and I took that opportunity to scramble to my feet. I don't know what I was thinking when I picked up the sobbing Wiz and threw him with all my might at the feline. He just simply bounced off and rolled to the ground. The Liepard turned its attention to him. _If this doesn't get him to fight, I don't know what will. _

"Wiz!" I yelled, "Use Absorb!" However, Wiz just sat in the grass shaking in his fluff. _Dammit, Wiz! _I thought biting my lip. I had to think fast before he got hurt. "Lily use… use scratch!"

Lily, thankfully, without delay charged at the wild Liepard that was slowly advancing on Wiz. She put herself right in front of the cotton ball Pokemon and slashed at the feline with her paw. In that moment I swore she looked like Wiz's knight in… well… slippery wet blue skin. The attack hit, but the Liepard countered with a chomp to her side. Lily shrieked in pain as its teeth sunk deeper and deeper into her skin. At that point I began to panic, especially when I saw blood dripping from her wound. "Lily!"

I threw myself at the Liepard. Somehow I had to save her even if I got hurt in the process. But then Wiz stepped in, well more like fluttered in. He began to glow a greenish color as did the Liepard. That's when I realized he was using Absorb. "Come on, Wiz! You can do this!" I cheered as the Liepard's grip slowly lessened on Lily until it eventually let go. As soon as she was free from its grip she tackled it and it fell to the ground unconscious.

Without a second thought I ran over to Lily's side. She was bleeding pretty badly. I tried to pick her up but she whined then smacked me with her tail and I collapsed to the ground. I looked over at Wiz who was now cuddled up next to her.

"Nee… Nee…" It looked like he was either trying to thank her for protecting him or apologize for her injury. She simply licked him in response. Nothing like this could ever happen again. I never wanted to see any of my Pokemon get hurt ever again. I was fighting back tears now. _What if Wiz hadn't stepped in? What if that stupid Liepard hurt him instead? _I wasn't even concerned with my own safety, just theirs.

"Wiz," I called out. He glanced over at me looking pretty miserable and I could tell he was punching himself mentally for Lily's injuries. I leaned over and patted him on his fluff. "Friends will get hurt when you're a coward," I tried to say it as caring as I could, but I knew he could tell I was bothered by the whole incident. Tears started forming in the corner of his eyes, "From now on, you've got to play hero even if you risk getting hurt or losing." I picked him up and held him close. I hoped that this would be a future lesson to the both of us.

Lily began licking her wounds. I wondered how I was going to explain this Fletcher. I needed to get my hands on a potion. It would cover up the wound and then, I wouldn't have to worry about a thing.

Of course, getting out of Route 5 turned out to be a lot easier said than done. Wild Pokemon, mostly Solosis and Trubbish, attacked us almost every step back towards the main road. _Dammit! What the hell is with these Pokemon? Are they taking advantage of the fact that Lily is injured?_

Lily and the newly confident Wiz, together disposed of the Pokemon. Wiz didn't seem at all intimidated by the wild Pokemon. I suspected he was trying to make it up to Lily. His Absorb attacks weren't even that effective. Alone, he probably didn't even stand a chance, but that didn't stop me from cheering him on.

By the time we had finally gotten out, Wiz was at a whopping level 13 having learned two new moves, Mega Drain and Stun Spore, which he spammed as soon as he learned them. Lily was at level 36. I wasn't sure if she had grown a level or not since I hadn't taken the time to consult my Pokedex about her stats the day before. I returned Wiz back to his Pokeball and headed over to the Pokemon Center to pick up a Potion.

As soon as I stepped inside of the center, I was in sheer awe. For once, I actually had a reason to step in there. Sure I had come in before, but those times I had felt like I didn't belong in there or I didn't have the right to be in there. Seeing trainers just like me crowding around each other and talking or doing whatever they pleased sent me straight into a smiling fit. Lily butted her head into the back side of my leg knocking me out of my trance. I noticed a bunch of trainers crowded around the television, talking in whispered hushes. After I brought a few potions, I decided to see what was so interesting on TV.

"-reports that the Champion has gone missing. Police suspect foul play in the disappearance of Johto's Champion Lance Winsfield." The television blasted as soon as I was within earshot.

"He probably just chickened out. The Pokemon League is just around the corner. Maybe he's sick of being Champion and just wanted a break," A boy, no older than 13 years old, said to a girl standing beside him.

"No way!" She said, indignantly, "Lance is the greatest trainer or all time! He wouldn't simply just run off! He's better than that!"

"Okay, okay," The boy didn't pursue the matter any further and instead trudged off to the other side of the room.

_Of course the Champion would go missing right before I'm about to start my adventure. Just my luck… _I thought to myself. _Hopefully he reappears when I challenge the league._ I turned towards Lily, who had made herself comfortable on the floor. I bent down beside her and sprayed the potion over her wound. Like magic her wound began to mend itself. She got to her feet and hopped on top of me, and begin licking my face.

"Lily!" I laughed, trying to fend her off, "Stop it! You're embarrassing me!" Her rough, wet tongue slid across my cheek leaving saliva in its wake. I wiped it off with the sleeve of my shirt.

"Va- Vaporeon!" She did not relent.

I decided to go back to Route 5 for a little more training. Plus, I wanted to feed Lily and Wiz before I started looking like their next meal. I purchased two poffins from the food truck, both of them pecha flavored. I let Wiz out of his ball as soon as I found a spot on the pavement off to the side. I handed each of them one poffin and watched them joyfully chomp down on their food without a care in the world.

Somehow Wiz managed to get the poffin all over his cotton. Lily watched him slightly amused as she took her precious time eating hers. When Wiz was done he looked at me for more and I told him I didn't have anymore and he went to watch Lily.

"Cotton nee!" He said to Lily. Lily's eyes narrowed and she picked up the rest of her poffin and turned away from us. I let out a dry laugh at this.

"Hey you," I heard someone say. I glanced up and found a boy maybe a year or two older than me, hovering over Lily and Wiz. He had a malicious grin spread across his face and was tossing a great ball into the air. He had wavy burnt sienna colored hair that fell just before his brown eyes. He wore a black cardigan that had a strange golden emblem in the upper left corner. Under that he wore a golden yellow shirt to match. He wore a pair of black trousers that had yellow suspenders falling at his side.

"Y-Yeah?" I gulped. He definitely did not look like the other trainers I had seen before. To be quite frank, he almost looked intimidating despite being slender. No, he looked like the personification of evil itself.

I was getting ready to scream for help when he said, "You up for a Pokemon battle?"

_Crap. Crap. Crap. _I thought, _I can't decline a battle. _

"I haven't got all day," He tapped his foot impatiently and Lily hissed at him.

_Okay. Okay. He can't possibly have anything that's that bad. _I studied him for a moment. _He doesn't look like the type to have a Dragonite. I've got this. I can do this. _If anything, I was trying to convince myself I could beat him.

"Yeah," I said, trying to look confident, "I'll battle you."

"Great!" He chuckled, "I love sending newbies packing!"

I felt the color drain from my face. _Hell, he just said "Newbies"._

"How many Pokemon do you have?" He asked, standing a safe distance away from me.

I looked down at Lily and Wiz. Could I use Lily in battle against another trainer? Wiz certainly wouldn't stand a chance against whatever he had that was for evident. "Two." I replied. Lily's ears perked up at this.

"Okay, I'll use one," He smiled, lobbing his Pokeball forward as he said, "Go Fluffy."

I was expecting something like an Eevee or Skitty to appear but that was no where in league with what actually came out. A Tyranitar. Yeah, I said it. This trainer had named his Tyranitar, Fluffy. What a very misleading name for a Pokemon. He seemed to be enjoying the shocked look on my face.

"Uh… go… Lily…" I commanded rather hesitantly. If anything she stood a better chance at defeating it. After all it was a part rock type. Sure, Wiz was a grass type, but he was a level _13_ grass type. I wasn't wholly ready to sacrifice him to something like Fluffy.

Lily stopped eating and trotted off in front of the Tyranitar that was busy roaring.

"Fluffy, Dragon Breath!" The older teenager yelled. Fluffy opened its mouth and purplish flames erupted out.

"Lily, dodge!" I cried out, "Counter with a Water Pulse!" She pranced out of the way of the oncoming flames. Once she was safely out of its reach, she unleashed a Water Pulse on her foe.

"Fluffy, get out of the way," The other trainer said with a determined look on his face. Tyranitar obeyed and stomped away from the pulse, "Use Dark Pulse." A purplish black ripple surrounded Fluffy then flew at Lily.

"Lily! Stay out of its reach and spam Water Pulse!" Lily managed to narrowly dodge the Dark Pulse and sent another Water Pulse Fluffy's way.

"I'm tired of this already," The other trainer yawned, "Dodge that attack and use Earthquake."

My heart sunk as Fluffy literally pirouetted out of the way and began stomping its feet angrily against the ground. The ground began to shake violently. I was thrown off of my feet and gripped onto Wiz to prevent him from being punted into the sky. The other trainer remained undisturbed laughing maniacally.

I was thrown into the air at least a good three feet, but I wouldn't let go of Wiz. I saw Lily struggling to stay on her feet before I hit the ground with a loud thud only to be tossed in the air once more. I was aware that I was screaming Lily's name at the top of my lungs.

"Fluffy, finish off that Vaporeon," Tyranitar began making its way over towards Lily, who was still trying her best to stay on her feet, with no problem. I had to do something fast but I was still getting thrown into the air. Tyranitar grabbed Lily by her tail and began swinging her around like a rag dol. I heard her screams over mine. A pain shot through my heart.

"I forfeit!" I found myself crying at the top of my lungs.

A grin appeared across the trainer's face. He didn't even look the least bit bothered by his Pokemon's actions. In fact, he began to mock me. "Fluffy," He said in a way that one would talk to a baby, "put the big baby's Vaporeon down." He then proceeded to go into a laughing fit when Fluffy simply tossed Lily aside like it were nothing. She fell to the ground motionless. The ground gave one final rumble before stopping completely and I hit the floor. I immediately sent Wiz, who was sobbing uncontrollably, back into his ball and scrambled over for Lily.

I scooped her up in my arms. "Lily! Lily!" I cried. She was breathing slightly. I was glad she was just unconscious.

"Oh hoh!" The trainer clapped beside me, "My. My. That's quite the performance. I give it a ten out of ten."

"B-Bastard!" I yelled, shooting him a dirty look. How could someone be so cold hearted? _Even if he is a veteran trainer there's no need to be… be a jackass._ I couldn't believe people like him actually existed.

He heaved a heavy sigh, "Welp, this is just adorable, and normally I'd stay and watch you wallow in sadness, but I'm on a very tight schedule. So, fork over half of your money." He snickered as he held his hand out to me and snapped his fingers impatiently in my face.

I shoved my free hand into my pockets and handed the money over, not bothering to count it. I just wanted him to get away from me.

The trainer's smile as he left was just dripping with cruelty. Just when I thought he was gone for good, he tapped me on the shoulder. "Quit looking like a kicked Growlithe." He tossed a strange looking bronze diamond at Lily, then turned on his heels and continued on his way.

And thankfully, Lily began to wake up. I hugged her tightly and she licked my cheek.

I'd never… let anything like that happen to her again. I let her get hurt twice in a five hour time span due to my reckless nature. But this time, for sure, I was never going to let anything like that happen to her.

_I'm leaving tonight._

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><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>And there we have it. I think I did an okay job with the battle scenes. Thank you OceanSpiral once again for reviewing chapter three, plus whoever else may be lurking around. Next chapter ends the _Escape from Unova _Arc.

**Next Chapter: **The main character finally leaves for Johto with Wiz.


	5. Goodbye, Halcyon Days

**Identity Crisis**

**Chapter Five: Goodbye, Halcyon Days**

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><p>"I've been waiting a long time<br>For this moment to come."

-Green Day

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><p>After my crushing defeat at the hands of Fluffy and its trainer, I heaved Lily over my shoulder and carried her all the way to the Pokemon Center. She flailed around for a bit, trying to get herself free from my grip. Normally I would've let her, because having a 60 pound eeveelution on my shoulder was the least bit comfortable, but she had just been a Tyranitar's chew toy.<p>

"_I hope I never see that trainer again…"_ I thought with a frown as I handed Lily and Wiz over to Nurse Joy. Nurse Joy gave me a serious talking to about being more careful with my Pokemon. As if I'd known that that trainer was going to have a Tyranitar. If I did, I certainly wouldn't have pitted Lily against it. I nodded and pretended to take all of her words of wisdom in.

When she was done lecturing me, I decided to take a look at the television to see more coverage on Johto's missing Champion. There weren't nearly as many trainers crowding around as there had been earlier so I was able to grab a seat in the second row.

"Still no word from Johto's missing Champion, Lance Winsfield," The female news reporter said, motioning at the home of the said Champion. Police littered his lawn with Growlithe searching for some type of clue. I, honestly, didn't think that they would find anything in his house that would lead them to his whereabouts. There were plenty of people that could've had beef with him. He was the Champion after all. I was more surprised that someone would be able to take him down. _Pfft… Yeah right. No one's taken the guy down in over nine years. _The idea of him running off was seeming a bit more logical in my mind. They hadn't even been able to locate his Pokemon, let alone their Pokeballs.

"I wish they would show something else on the news for a change," A trainer two seats away from me said to no one in particular, "I mean, the only thing interesting that's happened is that stuff in Hoenn a year or two ago. That was something. For all we know Lance could've just gotten into it with one of his dragon Pokemon and flew off to Mt. Silver. This is just speculation. I just want to know what the damn weather is going to be like tomorrow before I head off to Driftveil."

"It's going to be cold there, as always," A trainer somewhere in the room replied, in an annoyed tone.

Nurse Joy called out for me just as I was about to laugh in response. I quickly excused myself and retrieved Wiz's Pokeball and inspected Lily for any noticeable scars. Much to my relief, there were none. I thanked the nurse repeatedly before heading home.

As soon as I got home, I started packing. Lily watched from my bed as I pulled a decent sized back pack from out of the closet. Her ears drooped slightly when she seemed to realize exactly what I was doing. She made a noise that sounded like a cry, but I pretended not to hear it. I'd made up my mind. I was leaving Unova no matter what. As much as I did want to bring her with me, I couldn't. She wasn't mine and I didn't want her to get hurt anymore on my or Wiz's behalf. She'd already helped me so much. I gave her a reassuring smile as I began to gather the necessary clothing for my journey. Among other things, I grabbed my toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, brush, comb, a small towel, two bars of soap, an extra pair of sneakers, and my wallet. I needed to deposit my cash into my trainer account quickly. I'd read that when losing against other trainers, the loser had to hand over half of their cash. And half of my cash was a lot. It would leave a considerable dent in my funds considering as I'd been saving up for four or five years. Until then I would have to do my best to stay out of sight from other trainers. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and set it on the dresser. If there was one thing I had learned from being in the Witness Protection Program, it was that the Marshalls could find out where I was from triangulating the signal on my phone. I'd most likely end up losing it anyway.

When I was finally done, I put my pack back into the closet and flopped onto the bed next to Lily. I stroked her ear softly. For some strange reason I felt… sad. For the last six years I had been so anxious to get out and become a trainer, so why was I having second thoughts? What if Fletcher thought the reason I left was because of him? What if they found me in Johto? What if I was forced to released Wiz and whatever other Pokemon I may have at that time? I bit my lip hard at those thoughts.

Lily seemed to notice my sadness and curled up closer next to me. "I had fun here, Lily," I told her in a hushed voice, "Honestly, when I first got here I thought it was going to be like the other places I'd stayed. It hasn't been. And if I didn't promise myself that I'd leave and become a trainer… well… I wouldn't ever leave. There are just so many things to love about this place, aside from Liepards with murderous intent in their eyes and trainers who name their Tyranitar Fluffy. There's you and Fletcher. For the first time, in a long time, I feel like I have a family. I hope that when I am captured by the marshalls or collect all of my gym badges that I'll be able to come back here with you guys."

I sat up suddenly and pulled out a pen and notebook out of my nightstand and began to write a thank you letter to Fletcher. It was the least I could do for him.

_Dear Fletcher Holcomb, _

_When you read this, I'll be long gone. Obviously I can't tell you where to, because that would just ruin everything. Besides, I know you as well as the others will come looking for me. I can't have that. Sure, it's going to make my journey a whole lot more interesting, but I don't want it to end before I have the chance to win my first badge. Hopefully by the time you do find me, I'll be a decent trainer. I'm not trying to make a difference in the world. I know most trainers set off with the mentality that they're going to change the world, become champion, and find a legendary Pokemon, well not me. Especially not with my luck. If I don't get found anytime soon, I'll keep battling. I'll keep getting those badges. I'll keep getting better. I'll keep working on getting stronger so I won't need you lot to protect me. _

_But, that's not the real reason I'm writing this letter. It's really to say goodbye to you and thank you for being nice to me. I've been around quite a few Marshalls who were just concerned with keep me safe and not concerned with what I wanted. Mr. Appleyard, if you ever read this, I hate you, you… you… apathetic jerk. Fletcher, you made me feel at home. You made me feel like I had a family. Heck, you made me feel like I had a friend. It's because of you and Lily that I've enjoyed my time here in Nimbasa. Remember how you told me that one day I'd get my chance to become a Trainer? Well, now is that time. It may take a while, but when I do, you'll be the first person I come visit. Thank you, Fletcher, and goodbye._

I pulled the page from my notebook and neatly folded it up. I wrote his name neatly on the front and then placed it on my nightstand.

Shortly afterwards, my stomach growled at me and I decided it was time to make dinner. The last dinner I would share with Fletcher.

I made the same thing I had made the night before. A salad for him and fruit bowl for me. I gave Lily one of my cut up pieces of a Pinap berry while waiting for his arrival. She ate it happily then slunk off into the living room.

When Fletcher finally made it home, Wilfred was at his side carrying a bag of groceries. "Dinner? Two nights in a row? Now I really think you're trying to kill me," He laughed heartily as he put the groceries down on the table.

"Very funny," I grinned, getting up to help him with the groceries. I went to grab the bag from Wilfred's mouth, but he growled at me and I didn't need to be told twice to leave him be. "I'll… just… put these here away…" I said slowly inching away from the furry canine.

"Arf!" Wilfred barked.

After we were done putting away the groceries, we sat down for dinner. Lily had attached herself to her trainer's legs as we ate, while Wilfred watched us from the living room. More like watched me.

"So, what did you do today?" Fletcher asked, stuffing a piece of lettuce in his mouth.

"_Get attacked by Liepard. Get brutalized by a Tyranitar named Fluffy, you?" _I thought, "Just went exploring. You know, the usual."

"Good. Good." He nodded.

"What did you do?" I asked when I found myself feeling guilty for lying to him. _"Get a grip, kid! He'll know something is up if you start looking like a kicked Growlithe!"_

"What I've been doing for the last few days. They've been absolute horror, y'know. All because that Champion goes missing. It's like the bloody president has gone AWOL. I don't know why our lines are being flooded with… with crazy end of the world hippies. We're on an entirely different continent. Sure do hope the guy shows up unharmed soon. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take," He groaned, running a hand through his hair.

"How long has he been missing?" I asked.

"About a week now. Some locals in Blackthorn said they saw some strange men lurking around his house right before his disappearance. That's why everyone is so worked up. Some people have this crazy idea that Team Rocket is rising… again. Blasphemy, I say. You don't recover from your organization being taken down by ten year olds named after a crayon twice," Fletcher ranted. I felt my heart sink a bit.

"They're probably just some wannabees," I pretended to shrug it off. I was really quite bothered by the whole situation. If Team Rocket was rising once more- for the third time, then maybe they were behind his disappearance. He did help bring them down the second time.

"Yeah. It's nothing to worry about though. Just a bunch of nasty rumors is all," He grinned noticing a sullen look on my face. "Trust me. Even if they are, some kid named Orange or Purple will take them down," He chuckled. I laughed dryly with him. _What if they are rising again? Talk about poor timing to start my adventure._

"Like always."

"Mmhmm. Just a month ago those Team Plasma guys disbanded. Some boy named Black and his sister White took them down. It was crazy. I was dispatched to help rid the League of those Plasma grunts. They were no joke either. But those two twins handled it like it were nothing. Kids these days, I swear."

After we were done eating, we sat down in the living room to watch some TV. The program had long since gone off. Fletcher had fallen asleep with his head buried in his canine's fur and his legs draped over Lily's body. Wilfred for some strange reason kept his eyes glued to me. I tried to ignore his stares, but he would capture my attention by barking. _"What is this dog's problem?"_ I thought scooting over towards the other side of the couch, the farthest I could without making it seem obvious. Lily, too, was staring me down, but unlike her companion, she wasn't saying anything.

"What do you want?" I whispered loudly at them, "Why are you staring at me?"

"Arf!" Wilfred barked in response. Fletcher, still half asleep, sat up and looked around. He locked eyes with me for a very brief moment before falling back into his Pokemon.

I glanced over at the clock. "_Almost time to leave."_

"I'm going to bed," I told them. Lily tried to slip from underneath Fletcher's legs but she failed and Wilfred couldn't move without letting his trainer's head hit the wooden floor. He let out a growl as I disappeared around the corner.

I slowly tiptoed up the stairs in an effort not to awaken the sleeping Marshall. "_This is it."_ I thought as I retrieved Wiz's Pokeball and my Pokedex from underneath my mattress. I sat down on the edge of my bed and took a deep breath. Everything in my body hurt. I didn't know why I was feeling the way I was. _"C'mon! Why do I have to have a guilt trip now?"_

I shook my head and got to my feet. I rummaged through my closet in search of any last minute items I may have forgotten. I ended up packing a flashlight, my blanket, and a pillow. I paced the room for a while trying to figure out what else I may have needed. Eventually I decided that I did have everything and I tossed my backpack on the bed.

I pulled on a black sweatshirt over my stripped white and blue t-shirt. I made sure to comb through my medium length wavy hair too. The last thing I needed to do was start my training days looking like a trainer.

After I was absolutely sure I had everything I needed, I slung the bag over my shoulder and headed over towards the window. I pulled the window open and took the screen out. I ended up having to take my bag off since I couldn't fit through the window with it on. I tossed it to the ground below and it hit the ground with a loud thud. I crawled out the window and dropped to the ground after it. I landed on top of my bag holding in a scream as I fell. There was only one thing that I was afraid of and that was heights. Probably because when I was five and I was playing on the slide and one of the kids got impatient and pushed me off the side.

I brushed myself off and picked up my backpack. I peered through the window and saw Wilfred and Lily staring at me. Lily looked pretty sad and much to my surprise, so did Wilfred. I waved my hand awkwardly at them and then set off into the city on foot.

It was weird walking around the city after my curfew. This was the first time I was venturing out after night had consumed the city. It was strange. There weren't as many people on the streets as there had been during the daytime, but it was still a considerable amount of people.

My destination was the Castelia City docks. I'd thought about just taking a plane over to Johto but it would've been expected of me. Plus, the police force had kicked up security after the Team Plasma attack on Mistralton City's airport. There was no way I could make it through there without being spotted. My best chance was to catch a ride on one of the cruise ships that traveled back and forth between the two regions. Sure it would be a lot of money, but it'd be worth it.

I continued down towards Route 4. It probably wasn't such a good idea to travel through the desert at night but I didn't have much of a choice. Sandile and its evolution were known to frequent the route. They were pretty dangerous. I had watched some programs on them a few times and found that one bite from their teeth could take a person's arm or leg clean off. I shuddered at the thought.

I pulled a scarf and a pair of goggles out of my pack before I entered the route. I wrapped the scarf around my neck and pulled it over my mouth and then slipped the goggles on. This was the necessary precaution most people traveling between this route had taken to avoid getting cut up by the shard of sand and rocks blowing about in the wind. I brought a few bottles over water out of a nearby vending machine just in case anything went wrong.

No more than two or three minutes in, a Sandile jumped from out of the sand. I shrieked as it went to bite my leg and fled in the direction of Castelia City. I didn't want to bring Wiz out in this weather. He'd easily be blown away. But I didn't have much choice when another Sandile caught a part of my jeans and began to tug at my leg. "Get off!" I screamed, shaking my leg sporadically in an attempt to get the reptile off of my pants. "Wiz!" I pulled his Pokeball out of my pocket and tossed it to the ground.

Wiz, as usual, came out of his Pokeball looking quite terrified. Then, to my worst fears, he was buffeted by the sandstorm. I barely managed to scramble forward and catch his leaf in time. I pulled him tightly against my chest, still screaming as I tried to get the Sandile off of my pants. "Cottonee!" Wiz cried.

"Wiz, help me!" I cried, pointing to the vicious Sandile. Wiz, still sobbing, began to glow green. It sucked whatever life the reptilian creature had from it, until it eventually fell to the ground unconscious. I breathed heavily once that was over with. I held Wiz tightly, and refused to put him back in his Pokeball after that.

It turned out to be a good call on my part, because we were attacked a good twenty or more times before we finally reached Castelia City. I'd still only been out for five going on six hours. To me, I was making good time. The sun was starting to rise so it made for maneuvering the streets of Castelia a whole lot more difficult since the streets were starting to become cluttered. I returned Wiz to his Pokeball to give him some rest. I was pretty tired by now having walked the entire way. _"The sooner I get to the docks the better…" _I huffed and continued to weave through the crowds of people.

I made sure to pass Castelia's Gym along the way. I heard the Gym Leader was a very strange, but popular, man who loved bug Pokemon and art. A single trainer was huddled up with her Pignite outside of the front doors. _"Soon that will be me." _A big grin appeared on my face as I continued towards the docks.

By the time I did reach the docks, a line was already forming at the ticket booth. The tickets for the Johto Cruise Liner, Royal Johto, went for about $250 per passenger and additional $50 for each Pokemon a person carried. _"Glad I've been saving up. This stuff isn't cheap."_

I waited in line for about a good hour or so before it was finally my turn. I was glad. The people behind me were getting on my last nerves as were their children. The youngest one insisted on stepping on my shoe over and over. Her parents thought it was cute and did nothing to stop it and just smiled at me whenever I would turn around to glare daggers at her.

"ID please," The lady hidden behind bullet proof glass said through a speaker of some sorts. I fished my ID out of my pocket and handed it to her through a little slip in the glass. She studied it for a moment before handing it back. "Which region are you planning on traveling to?"

"Johto, ma'am," I replied.

"And how many Pokemon do you have on you?" She asked.

"One," I said holding up Wiz's Pokeball.

"If we find out that you have anymore Pokemon on you, you'll be fined $100 per each additional Pokemon found on you, understand?" The woman said in a monotone voice.

"I understand," I nodded.

"Your total is $378," She said.

I searched through my wallet and pulled out the correct amount of money and slid it through the glass. She handed me my change as well as a purple ticket that read Royal Johto.

"You're on dock number nine," She said motioning in the direction of the boat, "You'll be given your room number when you board the ship."

"Thanks," I said heading off to the dock.

It took almost an hour to get to dock number nine and find my room aboard the large cruise ship. Royal Johto wasn't just any cruise liner, it was a luxury, state of the art, cruise liner. It was equipped with everything I could've ever possibly imagined. An arcade, a casino, a pool, a tennis court, volley ball court, a cafeteria, a restaurant (for fine dining), and a battling area for us trainers. But that was only the half of it. I learned that it would take two, maybe three days to get there. I complained at first, but when I saw my room I shut up completely. Everything in it was something out of a brochure for a mansion. It even had a balcony!

"This place is awesome!" I yelled, throwing my hands into the air. _"They weren't kidding when they said _Royal _Johto." _I decided to let Wiz in on some of my happiness. As soon as he was out of his ball, he started to tear up. I quickly scooped him up in my arms to get him to stop. "Wiz!" I laughed, hugging him tightly, "We're finally going to Johto!"

"Cottonee!" Wiz smiled with me.

For once, my luck seemed to be looking up. But, unfortunately, it would be short lived.

* * *

><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>And there's Chapter Five! Now, the interesting stuff starts to happen. Thanks OceanSpiral and master of death and vanity for reading!

**Next Chapter: **The main character seems to be having a blast on Royal Johto, that is, until it's attacked.


	6. Leap of Fate

**Identity Crisis**

**Arc II: For a Badge**

**Chapter Six: Leap of Fate**

* * *

><p>"They say jump, you say how high?"<p>

-Rage Against the Machine

* * *

><p>Somewhere in between excitedly running back and forth through my room with Wiz and standing on the balcony, I fell asleep. When I came to, the boat was moving now, slowly, but it was definitely moving. Wiz snored away peacefully on my chest. I raised my arm up to block the sun from my eyes. I know most trainers started their journeys happy, but I don't think any of them were in league with what I was feeling. I hadn't even fully started my adventure yet and I was already bouncing off of the walls like a ten year old.<p>

I picked up Wiz and placed him in a makeshift bed I made out of some towels for him earlier to go and check if I could still see Unova. Much to my surprise, I couldn't. It was now nothing more than a spec in the distance. _Now this is real. There's no turning back now._

I wondered if Fletcher had found my letter when he found that I was missing. I really hoped he did. Even more, I wondered what his reaction was to my absence. I hoped Lily was okay. Wilfred too- even if he had been pretty hostile towards me during my time in Unova. A wave of sadness swept over me. _Don't think about them. Just don't… It's better that way…_

I didn't have to force myself not to think about Unova because my stomach had rumbled loudly. I'd just walked twenty-something miles in eight hours and hadn't had anything to eat in over twelve hours. I really needed to invest in nutritional bars or breakfast bars when we touched down in Olivine City. Something small for when I was traveling long distances and there wasn't a city or a Center in the middle of nowhere.

I returned the sleeping Wiz back into his ball and headed out into the halls. The moment I opened my door, I was prompted to go back in and lock the door for the remainder of the trip. Kids, of all ages, were running around the halls like it were field day. It wasn't just four or five of them reeking havoc, there were around fourteen or fifteen of them. Their childish laughter reverberated off the walls making it sound a lot louder than it really was. I was surprised that no one was telling them to be quiet. _"I may never have kids after this,"_ I thought, pushing my way passed them, _"Was I like that when I was little?" _I hoped not.

Luckily, I made it out of there with very little injuries- one of the children had thrown a ball at my face when I had refused to play with them. Who would've guessed that a little kid could be so spiteful?

I headed straight for the cafeteria after that. I passed a few trainers on the way and found that battling was confined to the Battling Area. I made sure to stay as far away as possible from as I could. I wasn't ready to lose my second battle around a lot of people. Plus, with my luck, I was certain one of them had to have had a fire or flying type. I even managed to somehow convince myself that one of them even had a Tyranitar.

"Hello again!" A squeaky voice said, knocking me out of my thoughts about how delicious my sandwich was. I glanced up from my sandwich to see the girl that had been stepping on my heels hours before.

"_Why me?" _I thought, looking back down at my food, _"Maybe she'll go away if I ignore her… Arceus, please, please go away."_

"Hey, Mister!" She giggled, trying to grab my attention. She was around three feet tall and was skinny, but still had baby fat on her arms, legs, and cheeks. She was pale in complexion and had freckles all over her pudgy face. She had short curly blonde hair as well as vibrant blue eyes. She wore a red and white polka dot dress with white stockings and black buckle shoes. If I weren't so sure she was hell bent on making my trip a living nightmare, I would've thought she was cute.

"Hey, Misssstteer!" She laughed again. My eyes narrowed as I tried my best to ignore her. "Mister! Mister! Mister!"

Finally, I had enough. "WHAT?" I yelled, glaring her down.

"Hi," She smiled.

I buried my face in my hands, _"Maybe if I talk to her she'll go away when she sees that I'm as boring as a Slakoth. Yeah…"_

"Hello," I said in the most monotone voice I could make.

"Hi! My name is Winnie!" She sat back in her seat down in her seat and began to kick her feet around.

"Well, hello, Winnie. Where are your parents?" I asked scanning the room for them.

"They're at the casino!" She laughed, "And Bryce is at the battling thingie! I got hungry so I came here!"

"Cool…" I said trying to sound a tad bit impressed.

"I wanted to make some friends too, but the other kids are mean," She pouted.

"You don't say…"

"Uh huh!" She said standing up on her chair. Her enthusiasm was pretty overwhelming. I wondered how her parents could deal with someone as… bubbly as her. "Will you be my friend?"

I nearly spit out my drink at this. "W-what?"

"My friend!" She said, leaning over the table and tugging at the sleeve of my sweater, "I need a friend and you're nice!"

I groaned loudly in response. "How about we go find your parents and your brother?"

"Hmph!" She huffed, hopping off of the chair. She crossed her arms and turned away from me. I noticed that tears begun to form in the corner of her eyes and her cheeks began to glow a tinge of red. "N-No one wants to be my friend!" She sobbed loudly

People started to turn in our direction and that only made her crying worse. I began to feel a slight twinge of embarrassment and did the only thing I knew that would get her to stop.

"Fine! Fine!" I whispered loudly, "I'll be your friend! Just… just stop crying!"

Almost instantly her face lit up with happiness. She ran over and threw her arms around me while screaming "Yay!"

"_She just duped me. This little girl just duped me. What have I gotten myself into?" _I grumbled, trying to peel the younger girl off of me. She hung onto me tightly and smiled up at me with blinking innocent eyes. "Mister! Mister! What are we gonna do now that we're friends?"

"Find your parents," I said getting up from my seat. I was expecting her to protest, but instead, Winnie grabbed hold of my hand and trotted next to me as I headed for the exit.

As we made our way over to the Casino, I learned quite a few things about the young girl. Her full name was Wisteria but everyone just called her Winnie. She was from Goldenrod City, Johto and had gone to Unova with her family to visit her grandparents in Black City. Lastly, she had just turned five.

"How old are you, mister?" Winnie asked as we rounded the corner just before the casino.

"Sixteen," I replied.

"You're older than Bryce!" She said excitedly.

"Awesome…" I groaned. "_The sooner I find her parents the better…" _I thought as we walked through the large doors of the casino. Instantly we were bombarded with the jingles of the machines and the shouting of people within. Everything about the place was just amazing. I doubted that if something caught on fire, no one would notice.

"All right… Let's find those parents of yours," I said looking down at her with a forced grin.

She looked up at me with a frown. "But I wanna play with you some more," She pouted, gripping tighter onto my hand.

"Uh… look Winnie…" I said scratching my head with my free hand, "Your parents don't know me so they'll think I'm trying to… er… kidnap you. Which I'm not!"

"But you're my friend. Why would they think that?" She asked. She was everything children stood for- innocence. But one day, she would eventually be a completely different person.

"Well, that's because," I tried to think of the best way to answer her question as I peered around some slot machines, "there are very bad people out there."

"Bad?" She asked.

"_All right… this is getting ridiculous. I don't know how much more of twenty-twenty questions I can take…" _I thought. "Hey, is that a vending crane?" I decided to shift the attention to something I knew she couldn't ignore.

Winnie began hopping up and down with excitement at the very mention of the vending crane. "Can we play it? Can we play it?"

"Yeah, go for it, sport," I said fishing a few dollars out of my pocket. I handed her one and she took off for the machine.

Her first try ended in complete failure. She started crying so I gave her another dollar and she tried again, rather tearfully too might I add. She had her eyes on a Mareep plush. The crane's claw wrapped around the plush and just when we thought she had it, it fell just before the opening. Winnie burst out crying while I tried my best not to laugh.

"Let a pro do this, Wisteria," I said with a big grin. I patted her softly on the shoulder. Winnie pressed her face against the glass surrounding the animals and stared wide-eyed at the Mareep plush.

Of course, the first time ended in severe failure. I was almost too embarrassed to look the young girl in the eyes.

The second time, however, I managed to make up for our previous failures by securing it by the tail. The machine began to jingle and light up as soon as the plush fell through the hole.

"Now that's how a pro does it," I laughed as I went to reach for it. Winnie shoved me out of the way, catching me off guard and I stumbled back and hit into a chair. She took the Mareep plush into her arms squealing. She rubbed her cheek softly against its soft yellow fur.

"Thank you, mister!" She said, throwing herself at me and latching around my torso.

"Uh… yeah… Now can we find your parents?" I said slightly embarrassed. Winnie bobbed her head, and then took hold of my hand all while admiring her brand new toy.

I had a vague idea of what her parents looked like. Her mother had golden locks of hair and radiant blue eyes. Her father was tall and of medium built, but I couldn't remember anything much more than the fact he'd been wearing a blue Orange Islands print t-shirt. Hopefully he hadn't changed since then.

After a while of searching, I gave up. Winnie was still preoccupied with her plush so she didn't bother me at all.

I pulled Winnie over to an empty table and sat her down in a stool.

"Mister," Winnie said as I looked around the casino from the safety of my own stool.

"Yeah? What, Winnie?" I asked, spinning around in my chair to look at her.

"I'm hungry," She replied.

"Oh… okay… uh… let's go back to the cafeteria and get you something to eat," I suggested, picking her up from her seat and setting her down on the floor.

Luckily, though as we were exiting the casino her parents caught sight of us and literally wrenched Winnie from my grip. I was almost ready to start screaming before I turned to see it was them.

"Winnie!" Her father yelled, clearly distressed, "We told you to stay with your brother." Winnie glanced over at me, then at her brother, as her two parents hugged her tightly. Her brother stood off to the side with crossed arms. He appeared to be rather annoyed, but about what, I assumed it was because of his missing little sister.

"But Bryce wouldn't play with me," Winnie replied, "And I wanted to play. But it's okay now. I found Mister." She pointed at me.

Her family turned their attention to me. For a moment, I thought they were going to explode with anger and start accusing me of kidnapping their daughter, but instead, they thanked me.

"Young man, thank you for watching over Winnie," Her mother said with an apologetic smile, "I hope she wasn't much of a hassle."

My cheeks flushed red and I began to stutter as I told her it wasn't a problem. Her mother, Winnie's mother, had an eerie resemblance to my own now that I was actually looking her straight in the face. She had similar features and that same motherly smile my mother had when she was alive. The very same mother that I had tried not to think of for over five years.

"I-It's okay… really…" I said, shaking my head, "She was… uhm… very well behaved." If well behaved meant running off and blackmailing a complete stranger to become friends with her.

"Good. Good," Her father nodded and gave his daughter another hug.

I felt strangely jealous. Not because someone else was hugging Winnie. Hell, Sinnoh's Champion Cynthia could've given her a hug and I wouldn't have cared in the slightest. Winnie and Bryce had parents who could still give them hugs. What did I have? Two dead parents and a Marshall who probably hated me now for running away. In other words, I had nothing. Well, aside from Wiz.

"Mommy. Daddy. I'm hungry," Winnie whined.

"Okay, okay. Say goodbye to the young man," Her father said with a bright smile.

"Bye, bye, mister! See you tomorrow!" She waved as her mother took her by the hand and lead her out of the casino.

"Bye, Winnie," I said with a sad smile.

I decided not to let Wiz out of his ball for the remainder of the day. The last thing I wanted him to see was his trainer in turmoil. For the first time in ages, I wanted a friend, a companion, anything. I was feeling so very lonely and it was a serious problem, as I had never missed people before. I rarely every felt anything besides fear, apathy, and happiness (as of recently). "_Damn Winnie and her family," _I thought as I buried my face in my pillows and drifted off to sleep.

The next day, I was determined to get over myself and have some fun. I had Wiz to accompany me. Sure, he wouldn't have been any fun at all, but at least I could talk to him when I got bored and not seem like a mentally unstable teenager.

At the end of the hallway, I managed to run into Bryce and Winnie. I was going to turn and walk in the other direction, but Winnie caught sight of me and thrust the Mareep plush I had won for her the day before into her brother arms.

"Winnie!" Bryce protested.

"Mister!" Winnie yelled, stopping short right in front of me. "What is that?" She pointed at Wiz, who stared back at her wearily.

"Cottonee…" Wiz pressed himself against my body in an attempt to get away from the young girl.

"He's a Cottonee… His name is Wiz. He's… uhm… shy…" I smirked.

Winnie reached her arm up slowly and patted his fluff gently.

When Wiz found that she was no threat, he relaxed and let her continue to pet him.

"You're a trainer?" Bryce asked in disbelief, as he came to stand beside his sister.

"There's no need to say it like that…" I sighed, "I just got Wiz."

"Yeah, I can see that…" He grinned.

I bit my lip in response. I didn't need to lose my temper. For all I knew, Winnie's brother could've had a Tyranitar. It wasn't a risk I was willing to take.

"He's adorable!" Winnie said, pulling Wiz out of my arms.

"H-Hey!" I yelled. My voice came out a lot higher than I would have liked.

Of course, Wiz started sobbing hysterically. I pulled Wiz from her arms and tried to calm him down with promises of a poffin. He rather reluctantly stopped crying. He refused to go back in Winnie's care.

"So… he's shy, huh?" Bryce said with a grin.

"Shut up."

Winnie watched Wiz so intently that I thought she was eventually going to die from not blinking. She was so fascinated by him and I, for the life of me, couldn't understand why. He was nervously eating his food. He'd occasionally glanced over at the young girl. Eventually the staring got the better of him and he pushed his pecha berry poffin as well as himself closer to me for some kind of protection.

"Cottonee… Cotton… Cottonee…" Wiz said motioning his leaf over at Winnie. Though I certainly did not understand his Pokemon talk, I knew just from the way that he was going about saying it that Winnie was either creeping him out or getting on his nerves. Maybe even both.

"Uh, Winnie… Can you please stop staring at Wiz?" I asked.

Winnie immediately began to pout. "But I wanna hold him!"

"Quit being a brat, Wisteria," Bryce interjected.

"I'm not being a… a brat, you meanie!" She cried.

"Yes, you are. Leave Wiz alone before he has a heart attack," Her brother snapped, shortly before stuffing another bowl of cereal into his mouth.

Tears began spilling from his sisters eyes. He heaved a heavy sigh and buried his face in his hands.

There was no emotion to accurately describe what I was feeling at that moment.

"Cottonee!" Wiz said, trying to grab my attention when he was done with his poffin.

"That's all I have Wiz…"

"Cottonee…" His eyes downcast.

\\\\

"Y'know, I sure hope you aren't planning on challenging Jasmine," Bryce said over the sobs of his little sister.

"Huh? What? Why?" I looked over at him, stunned. I had in fact planned on challenging Olivine City's Gym Leader Jasmine, after a bit of training. I glanced over at Wiz. Actually after a lot of training. I hoped she was a ground or water type Gym Leader. Something weak against grass types.

"She's a steel-type Gym Leader. Your Cottonee won't last more than two minutes on the battlefield with one of her Pokemon," He said, as if I should've known that.

"W-What?" I gasped. _She would have a type Wiz wouldn't do much damage against! She just would! _At that point I was convinced that the world was out to make my journey a very perilous one.

"Yeah. You're better off challenging Chuck, Falkner, or Bugsy. Wiz really doesn't have a type advantage against _any_ of the main Gym Leaders in Johto. You could go to the Safari Zone and catch yourself a fire type or you could go to Ecruteak City and find yourself a Growlithe or Vulpix. I'd choose the Safari Zone. They have plenty of Pokemon to choose from. Any fire type should be able to wipe the floor with her Steelix or in your case, her Aron, Magnemite, or Voltorb," Bryce explained.

"Damn it…" I groaned. I would have to take another boat to Cianwood City in order to get to the Safari Zone. It wasn't even easy to get to it either. I would have to travel through the Cianwood Mountain Range. That was potentially dangerous, not that it mattered much to me.

"If you don't mind me asking, why _are_ you starting your journey so late?" He turned in his sister's direction suddenly, "Winnie, dammit! Leave Wiz alone!" Winnie started whining and he rolled his eyes in response. "Anyway… I heard Unovian kids start their adventures at the age of 12, rather than 10... But the fact that you're _16 _and just starting your adventure makes me wonder why you're even bothering."

Winnie stopped whining and looked up at me expectantly.

I was the master at lying having had to do so constantly in order to keep my true identity under wraps. So it wasn't hard to think up another lie in a matter of seconds. "My parents wanted me to finish school before heading off on my adventure. Actually, they didn't want me to go at all. So I caught Wiz and well… I kind of ran away here…." I lied. Well, only part of it was a lie. I had indeed finished school, but that was because I didn't have much else to do. I'd been home schooled my entire life.

"Oh… huh…" He frowned, "A rebel, are you?"

"Eh…" I grinned sheepishly and scratched my head, "Not really. I just got tired of waiting."

That was an understatement.

"I bet. I would've run away long ago though if my parents hadn't let me become a trainer. I wonder what Winnie will be like when she goes off on her journey…" The two of us glance over at Winnie, who had returned to harassing my poor Pokemon.

"I can't wait to see that…" I said as she looked over at us and smiled.

"I want a Wiz!" Winnie announced as we walked down the hallway to the Battling Area.

Agreeing to go to the Battling Area was the only way I could get Bryce to tell me what Pokemon he had. Even then, he only agreed to show me them in battle. "Not against you. Battling a new trainer would leave a sour taste," were his exact words. I, of course, was interested to see what team had helped him snag seven badges.

"You mean a Cottonee, right?" I asked peering down at her. With the promise of another poffin, Wiz, rather reluctantly, agreed to let Winnie carry him around for the remainder of the day. I could tell it was killing him not be safe in my arms.

"Yeah!" She grinned.

"Wiz will be more useful when he's a Whimsicott," Bryce explained.

I found it a little odd that someone younger than me was showing me the ropes. _Well, he _does _have seven badges… _I thought. But it was still quite intimidating.

"What's a Whimsicott?" I asked. I immediately assumed it was some huge cotton ball that crushed its opponent with its fluff.

"You really are a beginner…" He sighed. He fished his hand in his pocket and pulled out a Pokedex. After a few button clicks, he handed it over to me. "That's a Whimsicott."

I stared in awe at the screen. My Wiz wasn't just going to be a bigger cotton ball; it was going to be one that could actually move on its own free will. In fact, he would be able to ride the wind. "When does he evolve?" I asked, handing him back his Pokedex.

"He can evolve now," My face lit up with joy, "if he had a sun stone. But I suggest you wait at least until he's learned Giga Drain," Bryce said, tucking his Dex back in his pocket.

I frowned and looked over at Wiz.

"Trust me; it'll be worth it in the long run…" He patted me on the shoulder, "Evolving a Pokemon to soon with an evolutionary stone can have its consequences. Most of the time they aren't able to learn the moves that their previous evolutions can."

"Oh… That kind of sucks…" I sighed. Part of me wanted to disregard Bryce's advice and evolve Wiz anyway. But the other part of me knew better. What if Wiz didn't want to evolve? I couldn't force evolution upon him- and I wouldn't.

"Here we are," Bryce said, knocking me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see a glass encased room with at least 50 people, ten of which were battling. There were five large areas with two people on each court. It seemed to be made of dirt, I couldn't be sure. "The moment you step inside anyone can challenge you to a battle so I suggest you stay out here with Winnie," He warned.

I didn't need to be told twice. All of the trainers inside looked intimidating. I lead Winnie off to a spot where we could see all the battles without any interruption. Winnie wasn't even the least bit interested in watching her brother battle. Her main concern was torturing Wiz. She wasn't letting him out of her sight. I felt a tad bit horrible about sacrificing him to the likes of Winnie, but she hadn't gone into one of her tantrums so I wasn't complaining.

After a good thirty minutes of waiting, Bryce finally walked up to one of the courts against a smug looking teenage boy. That wasn't to say Bryce didn't look confident. The young boy managed to pull off calm and over confidence at the same time.

He already had an Ultra Ball out and was tossing it into the air. The battle began shortly after they had each taken their places on each side of the court. His opponent released a Pokemon I recognized as Sandile's evolution, Korokrok. Bryce lobbed his ball out onto the battlefield with a grin. Out came a green mushroom like raptor with tiny red claws. I held my Pokedex up to scan it and found that it was the part grass, part fighting, Pokemon Breloom- a Pokemon native to Hoenn.

The opponent commanded his Pokemon to do something, but I couldn't hear anything through the thick glass. His Korokrok bounded towards Bryce's Breloom with its mouth wide open. Breloom waited until the last possible second to dodge the jaws of its opponent by stepping to the side. Its claw began to glow a silvery blue-ish color and it jabbed them into the Korokrok's stomach. It stumbled backwards a few feet before regaining itself. Bryce grinned slightly as the other trainer's expression began to falter. Pitting his Korokrok against Bryce's Breloom was a foolish decision. Breloom could exploit both of its weaknesses.

The opponent ordered his Pokemon to do another attack. Suddenly large glowing pieces of the ground ripped from the earth and hurled themselves at Breloom. Bryce barked another order. Breloom nodded in response. As they spiraled toward it, Breloom began to run straight for them. It got into a stance and smacked its tail hard against the rocks. The rocks crumbled into tiny pieces. Before the other trainer could even respond, Breloom released the same attack on its opponent.

And just like that the battle was over. Bryce simply walked off of the court with a triumphant smile. He happily accepted money from his challenger.

"What the hell was that?" I yelled, as soon as he came through the doors.

"Amazing, huh?" He laughed.

My lips formed into a thin line. Bryce was clearly no pushover. Why would someone like him be afraid to travel through Icy Path? He certainly looked like he could easily navigate it with whatever other Pokemon he had. I thought about asking him about it, but ultimately decided against it.

After a while of hanging out, the three of us parted ways. I had developed a bit of a headache after we had gone swimming in the pool on the upper deck. For Winnie, it was rather tearful. Chances were that neither of them would be seeing Wiz and I ever again. She gave me the biggest hug she could and told me she would "never ever" forget me. I highly doubted that. She gave Wiz a kiss on his cheek, which he wiped off with his leaf as soon as she turned her back, before handing him back to me. Bryce bade me farwell as well, and wished me luck with gathering badges. I was going to need a bit more than luck to help me with that.

\\\\

I'd gone up to the deck to check what events they were having. I soon found out that I had just missed a rare Pokemon egg raffle. I cursed myself for taking a nap. I took a seat on a beach lounging chair and stared up at the night sky. In the morning, we would be arriving in Olivine City. I would officially be on my way to becoming a true Pokemon Trainer.

No more than twenty minutes into being on the upper deck, things began to go very wrong.

"H-Hey, what's that?" Someone said suddenly with a hint of fear in his or her voice. I turned to look at the person and realized she was pointing off in the distance. I glanced over to see something orange flying straight towards our boat.

"Is that a Pokemon?" Another person asked in disbelief.

I squinted my eyes to get a better look at it. To my horror, I realized it _was_ a Pokemon. But not just any Pokemon, a dragon Pokemon! I scrambled to my feet when suddenly, the boat lurched forward and I was thrown off of my feet and into the metal railing. People began screaming as they fled the scene. The dragon opened its mouth wide and a grey orb began to form.

"_Hyper Beam!"_ I thought getting to my feet and joining the fleeing civilians and trainers. Just as I made it the main deck, the attack beamed down at the ship as the Pokemon flew by. The captain's quarters exploded into reds and oranges and debris flew everywhere. I watched in horror as the impact from the explosion knocked people straight over the railing and into the sea below.

As the dragon came back for round two, trainers began releasing their Pokemon to take down the rogue dragon. Sadly, we quickly found out that it wasn't alone. Various dragon and bird Pokemon began to touch down all around the boat. Off them came some men and women dressed in black and gold uniforms. They immediately started releasing their own Pokemon.

One of them said something, but it all sounded like gibberish to me over the panicking screams in the air. A trainer wearing the same black and gold uniform as the others lobbed a Pokeball out in front of me. Out came a huge yellow and black stripped Pokemon whose fur crackled with electricity. Instinctively my hand went down to my pocket, but stopped when I realized Wiz wouldn't do much damage. So instead, I turned and ran in the opposite direction.

My adrenaline started kicking into overdrive as I ducked and narrowly avoided a blast of fire from an enemy Houndoom. I clambered to my feet and began running once more. Where to? I didn't have the slightest idea. But somewhere less hazardous would've been nice.

"Mommy! Daddy! Bryce!" I heard Winnie's voice over the fray. My heart dropped. _What is Winnie on the deck this at this time of night! _I quickly scanned the area and spotted a panicked Winnie clutching onto her Mareep. She was staring up at something. A Dragonite.

"Winnie!" I bellowed. Winnie looked at me as I ran towards her. The Dragonite brought its claws down on the girl, but luckily, I managed to tackle her out of the way. However, in the process its nails sliced through my sweatshirt and cut into my skin. I let out a pained howl as I hit the floor with Winnie.

"M-Mister!" Winnie began sobbing as she looked at my bleeding arm. Ignoring whatever pain I felt, I lifted Winnie up into my arms. She slung her tiny arms around my neck.

A needle whistled by my face as I turned to see what the Dragonite was doing. It was mad. No, it was beyond mad. It was furious. It beat its wing against the air angrily and its nostrils flared.

"Shit!" I screamed and began running for the railing. However, Bryce collided into me. He tried pulling Winnie from my grip, but I wouldn't let him take her. "Bryce! No! Use your Pokemon against that Dragonite to distract it while I get Winnie out of here!"

"I can't! The boat is sinking!" He yelled. Just then, the boat shuddered and made a loud screeching sound. The boat began to tilt towards the other end, sending people and Pokemon alike off of their feet. I grabbed onto the railing and held tightly. Bryce followed my lead.

I was starting to realize that we couldn't stay on the boat any longer. Especially if we wanted to survive. I glanced over the side. It was a long way down. It wasn't easy making the decision I ultimately decided upon. I grabbed a fistful of Bryce's shirt and wrenched him up the railing. He stared at me wide eyed. The Dragonite behind us roared and Winnie began to cry even harder into my shoulder.

_I am so going to regret this… _I climbed over the railing, pulling Bryce with me. I took a deep breath before I leapt off of the boat. I screamed with every fiber in my body as we plunged to the sea below.

* * *

><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>Told you it was going to be interesting. I really contemplated cutting this chapter in half so I wouldn't have had so much happening at once, but I couldn't think of any other reason than that. Thank you OceanSpiral (Once again!) and DemocracyWoman for reading!

**Next Chapter: **The Main Character, Winnie, and Bryce wake up on the shore of Cianwood City.


	7. Welcome to Cianwood City

**Identity Crisis**

**Chapter Seven: Welcome to Cianwood City**

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><p>"And we'll all float on."<br>-Modest Mouse

* * *

><p>It's funny the things you dream about while you are slipping in and out consciousness. It would've been fitting if I had dreamt about my parents, but no. I was dreaming about some random people sitting around a big circular wooden table in a medieval dungeon of some sorts. The people's faces were unrecognizable, their face covered by the shadows of their oversized hoods. There were small jail cells off to the sides, built into the cobblestone walls, all of which I assumed were empty. There was a single window on the opposite side of the room from where I was standing, but it was covered with bars. As far as I could tell, it was late at night or very early in the morning.<p>

"_It_ wasn't there," One of the people said, clearly in a bad mood. It was clear she was a woman, that or a kid who hadn't yet reached puberty.

"That damn pixie is interfering- I know it is!" Another hissed. This person's voice I recognized, but I wasn't sure where I had heard it before.

"Well, there isn't much we can do now. In the meantime we can go for Bell Tower, but it won't make much of a difference if we don't have something Ho-oh would come down for," Another said, much calmer than the other two, "Carter, what's your opinion on the subject?"

At that moment, everyone turned and faced me. I was startled by the person's sudden question. I started to speak, but another voice answered for me.

"I say we hold off on Bell Tower and continue looking for _it_," The voice answered, in an almost regal voice.

"_What's this _it _they keep referring to?"_

"Oh yes! Let's listen to the newbie!" The person with the voice I recognized said, throwing his hands up in frustration. "For all we know he could be in cohorts with the damn pixie and the others!"

"Point your accusations elsewhere. I think I've done more than enough to earn my place among you," Carter replied with a hint of anger present. He was clearly not impressed with being called a traitor. The one throwing the accusation grumbled and sunk down into his seat. "While the rest of you decide upon what you are going to do next, I will go gather information about its whereabouts."

My body begun to move on its own towards a set of spiral cobblestone stairs. _This feels too real to be a dream… _I thought, as Carter made his way up the steps.

"I still think he's pulling things in his favor…" The second person said, shortly before Carter- or whoever was doing the walking, disappeared up the steps.

When we reached the landing upstairs, Carter's pace began to increase. He kept making me look over my or his shoulder. I started to think that maybe he was betraying those shady people downstairs. Worse case scenario: they were the good guys and he was the bad guy- or Pokemon. But whatever the case, he was acting strange, almost nervous even.

"Do you hear me?" He asked suddenly.

Who was he talking to? I couldn't see anyone else in sight.

"You. I know you're here. I know you're listening," Carter said again. _Maybe I can't see the person he was talking to from this angle. _That was the only thing I could think of. "Come on now. I'm running out of time. There is only one other person I could be talking to and that's you. Don't be shy. Speak, kid."

Then it hit me. _Maybe he is talking to me. _"Are… Are you talking to me?" I asked stupidly.

"Yes. I was beginning to think you died," Carter heaved a sigh of relief.

"Uh… I'm… I'm dreaming right? Or am I dead?" I asked, a bit of fear in my voice, "Is this the afterlife?"

"No, you are not dead," Carter snorted, "You are merely unconscious."

"Unconsc-" I began to protest.

"Shush, kid. I only have a limited amount of time to tell you something very important," Carter interrupted his voice dangerously low all of a sudden. "A storm is coming. You will be caught in the center of it. On your travels, you will meet two people. One will not be who he says he is… The other will be the only person you can rely on when the storm hits."

"What? What kind of storm? A metaphoric storm? What? This doesn't make any sense!" I asked.

"The future isn't set in stone, kid. It may be just a storm. It may even be a _war_. It might even turn out to be nothing at all. Hopefully her interference has changed something… But in case it does turn out to be one of the other two, you must be prepared. I can't stress that enough. Gather a team. A strong one. And whatever you do, _don't_ give up. That's all I am able to tell you without breaking anymore laws than I already have," Carter said.

"W-Wait! I still don't understand what it is you're trying to tell me!" I yelled.

"You will soon enough…" Carter whispered as the scene before me began to fade away as blue and white pixels.

As far as I was concerned, it was nothing more than a dream. After that, I actually had normal dreams. Most of them were memories of my parents and the rest of my family. About times when my parents were alive. Sometimes, I even dreamt of an alternate reality where they had never died and I had become Champion of Kanto.

When I finally did awake, it was rather painful. My whole body ached. I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to sun that was beaming down on my face. I was actually on solid ground now, not drifting around like a log in the water. The sand beneath me clung to my skin and damp clothing. Instinctively, my hand reached over to touch my injured arm. I looked over at it to see that it had stopped bleeding and a large scab was crusted over it. It was mixed with grains of sand and whatever else had been in the water.

"W…What happened?" My voice came out all groggy and hoarse. My mouth tasted like salt water and it wasn't the least bit pleasant. I began to rack over the events that had occurred in my head. _I was on a boat, yeah? _I thought closing my eyes tightly, _and I was having fun… or something. Then… crap… _I brushed my hand across my forehead. _Oh, shit. We were attacked and I hopped off the boat like an idiot. _I clenched my fist. _Damn it…with Winnie and Bryce. _

Panic set in at that point. I had leapt off a boat with two kids into what was possibly freezing ice-cold water. Not to mention we weren't wearing life jackets. It was a wonder I was even alive. _I should probably stop acting out of impulse. _

Ignoring whatever pain I felt, I sat up groaning. Pain immediately seared throughout my body and it took everything I had not to scream out a series of curses. I bit my lip and continued to get to my feet. I almost fell back down to the ground when my stomach jolted, and in response I vomited whatever I had eaten so many hours earlier. I wiped whatever didn't reach the ground with the sleeve of my tattered sweatshirt. Though, technically, it wasn't much of anything anymore. It was just shreds of fabric.

After I pulled myself together, I rather shakily started to make my way across the water's edge. Things got pretty strange after that. I found my bag lying in the sand. _The hell? How'd that get there? _I thought, eyeing it wearily. I reached down and touched it. It wasn't wet at all. I instinctively brought my hand away from it. I tried to think of a logical explanation of to how it even wound up on the shore with me. I had left it in my room when I went to the upper deck. It should have been at the bottom of the sea with the rest of the ship. But, hell. I wasn't going to complain. I'd be broke if it didn't. I pulled the bag open. All of its contents were still there. However, there was an additional item now- an item I had not packed nor had ever seen before in my life. It was a small silver ornate with some kind of Braille engraved at the top of box. When I opened it, classical music begun to play. I sighed, disappointed, and tossed it back into my bag. I slung the bag over my shoulder and continued on my way.

It was about ten minutes later that I spotted Bryce lying face first in the sand. I would've found him sooner if I hadn't thrown up again. I began to panic as I ran over to him. Of course, it was more of a stumble but I tried my best. What if he was dead? What if Winnie was dead? It was a miracle I had managed to survive.

I dropped to my knees beside the boy and flipped him onto his back. His face was covered in sand and his brown hair was matted down onto his face. If it weren't for the slow rise and fall of his chest, I would've thought he was dead. I sighed with relief.

"Bryce!" I said as I shook him violently, "Bryce, _wake_ up!"

When he came to, his eyes fluttered open. He began coughing and wheezing as he sat up. He looked at me eyebrows raised as he continued to hack away. "W-where…?" He said in between coughs.

"I don't know. I really don't know… We could be in Johto or Kanto… Maybe even Hoenn…" I answered after clearing my throat. "I'm going to go look for Winnie."

He simply nodded and continued to cough.

I got to my feet. It wasn't hard to find her. She was lying on her back several feet away from us. She was already awake. She just kept blinking her eyes. I crouched down beside her. "Winnie?"

She looked at me through the corner of her eyes, but didn't budge one bit. Eventually she reached her hand out and grabbed onto my hand. She slowly sat up and went to hug me, when suddenly, she stopped. "M-Mister… You're bleeding…" She said pointing her tiny finger shakily at my stomach.

Sure enough, when I looked down, my white and blue striped t-shirt was covered with blood. There was a tiny hole at the center of where the blood was spider webbing out. I lifted my shirt up slowly and grimaced at what I saw. There was a reason behind my vomiting. I had assumed at first that I had gotten motion sickness from being thrown about by the waves. Maybe that was a little part of it. A decent sized needle had punctured my skin.

I looked over at Winnie, whose face was now red from crying.

I'd been poisoned. By what? Most likely a Tentacool or its evolution. Worse case scenario I had been poisoned by a Mantine. I pulled my shirt back down as Bryce stumbled over beside me. He pulled his sister into a bear hug and began telling her that everything would be okay. I, on the other hand, was wondering just how long I had been poisoned for and how much time I had left.

"Bryce… do you know how to treat poison?" I asked when I felt nauseous once more.

"I know how to treat it for Pokemon…" He replied, still holding Winnie, "Why do you ask?"

I pulled my shirt up to show him the stinger that was lodged in my side. He leaned forward, eyes wide. "We need to get you to a hospital or… get that out of you."

"No, I was planning on leaving it," I deadpanned.

I understood that my situation was grave. If I didn't find a Pokemon Center or hospital, I'd die. Just my luck would be that we ended up on one of the unpopulated Whirlpool Islands.

"All right… You need to stay calm," Bryce said, as he helped me up to my feet and leant me his shoulder. He kept his sister in his other arm.

Staying calm was asking for a lot. I'd been in so many near death situations that I should've been used to almost dying. But now, I was panicking. I didn't openly show it. I didn't want to scare Winnie. If I died now, I'd miss out on so many things. Like Wiz evolving into a Whimsicott. My first kiss. My first feeling of triumph from getting my first gym badge. Hell, I'd never find out what happened to the Champion. I wanted to live now more than any other time in my life.

A sudden surge of pain seared throughout my body and I keeled over to vomit. My vision began to blur as I vomited some more. A sudden chill swept across my body. Winnie let out a squeak. I knew why. I was now vomiting up blood. I collapsed into the sand holding my side. I was beginning to slip out of consciousness. Bryce said something to me, but my hearing had faded away. The last thing I saw before blacking out was an explosion of white light.

/

The next time I awoke, I found myself staring up at the white ceiling of a hospital room. It only took me a few seconds to realize where I was and how I had gotten there. I actually had no clue how I had even made it to the hospital, but whatever the case, I was certainly glad I wasn't dead.

_As if hopping off a sinking boat hadn't been bad enough… _I grumbled to myself.

There were various tubes sticking into my body. The IV needle in my hand started to itch, but I thought better of scratching at it. My left arm from where I had been attacked by that rogue Dragonite was wrapped up with bandages. My heart rate monitor continued to beep at a consistent rate. I tilted my head slightly to look out the clear glass windows that saw out into the hallway. Men and women raced by them, most of them doctors or nurses. Not a single one of them looked over at me.

A sudden yawn scared me. I turned quickly to find whom it belonged to. (A part of me panicked, thinking it was Fletcher or one of the other Marshalls.) My eyes fell upon a white fluff at the edge of my bed. _Wiz._ He was sleeping peacefully. I brushed my foot against his cotton. He didn't stir. I heaved a sigh, but that only sent a rush of pain throughout my body.

I felt around my bed for one of those buttons used to page a doctor or a nurse. I found it hanging off the left side of my bed. I pulled it up by the cord and hit the button.

Moments late a blonde nurse wearing pink scrubs walked into the room carrying a clipboard. She didn't seem to notice that I was awake. Judging by the disdained on her face, she must've come into my room quite frequently. That or, she was having an incredibly bad day.

"Hello?" I said. My voice came out a lot higher than I would have liked.

She looked at me with shock in her eyes. She almost dropped her clipboard to the ground, but managed to catch it with her other hand.

"You're awake," She gasped.

"Yeah…" I replied, "And I'm kind of… hungry…"

"Other than that, how are you feeling?" She asked, adjusting the needle in my hand. My hand twitched slightly. I hated needles more than I hated heights.

"Like someone stabbed me in the side with a poisonous needle," I replied jokingly. However, the nurse did not share my sense of humor and only frowned up.

"You are very lucky to be alive," She said crossing her arms. I could tell she wanted to say more, but held whatever it was back.

"Where are the others? The boy and his sister? Bryce and Winnie?" I asked, quickly afterwards when silence had taken over.

"The girl is still in critical condition as is the boy. The boy suffered from-" She flipped over a few pages on her clipboard, "Oh! Yes. The girl is suffering from hypothermia and has been in coma for the last week. As for the boy, he only suffered a concussion and has a few broken bones…"

Sadness swept over me. My rash decision had lead to a series of other complications. Was the outcome worth it?

No one came to visit my room aside from a few nurses occasionally checking to see if I was okay. I had been in coma for a little over a week. Everyone told me it was a miracle I was alive. But I wasn't feeling too lucky. I was to be in observation for the next week. My journey across Johto would be at a standstill until then. I didn't have any way to entertain myself. Wiz was still sleeping. Apparently he spent day in and day out at my side while I was unconscious. I was still contemplating on whether or not I should kick him off the bed to wake him up. The remote to the small television in my room was out of reach as was my backpack. I wasn't willing to risk getting up to retrieve them.

Luckily for me, a nurse walked in and asked if I needed anything. He handed me the remote then went to fetch me some water and Jell-O.

I turned on the TV, hoping it would take my mind off of not being able to travel.

And it certainly did because on every single news channel they were showing the same thing. The missing Champion seemed like ten-year-old news compared to this. In a bit of twisted irony, it was about the mysterious disappearance of Royal Johto and all 4,083 passengers on board.

"_Wait. What?" _I gaped at the television. I turned the volume up to make sure that I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. No one knew what happened. No one knew that we had been on that ship.

"Can you believe that?" A male nurse said, as he handed me the cup of Jell-O I had asked for as well a bottle of water. "It's hard to believe that a whole cruise liner would just up and disappear into thin air. I say it's a conspiracy."

"_Conspiracy indeed…_" I thought as I stuffed a spoonful of Jell-O into my mouth to prevent me from voicing my opinion on the topic. I glanced out of the corner of my eyes at my bandages. They were living proof that I had been on that boat. _"Those men in those uniforms must've covered it up somehow…" _The male nurse continued to talk as I thought on. _"They definitely weren't Rockets, that's for sure. Whoever they are… they certainly meant business."_

Halfway through eating, Wiz woke up. He yawned loudly then turned in my direction. Shock covered his face when he saw that I was up. It slowly faded away and tears begun to form in his eyes. He launched himself at my face and wrapped his leafy arms around my head in a sort of awkward hug.

"Hey Wiz. Nice to see you too," I smiled as I peeled him off of me. I placed his down in my lap.

He threw himself at my chest, sobbing. I patted him softly. He continued to cry for another good 15 minutes. I offered him the rest of my Jell-O to get him to quiet down, but he turned it down and continued crying.

"Wiz, I'm okay," I told him, as he hopped off of my lap and nestled at my side like a Growlithe or Meowth would. I showed him my bandages. "See? No bleeding. I'm good." His eyes narrowed in response and he said something but I obviously didn't understand what he was saying. Though, I was sure if he had a translator, he would be lecturing me on being more careful. I was already mentally punching myself in the face for hopping off the ship.

What if we were the only survivors? What if everyone else had gone down with the ship? What if they were all being held hostage on some remote island? There were no pleasant "what ifs" that came to mind. All of them seemed to try to justify my actions.

I managed to convince one of the nurses to let me visit Bryce and Winnie. With Wiz in my lap, a nurse pushed me in a wheelchair to their rooms. They forced the wheelchair upon me despite my avid protesting. They told me it was a necessary precaution since I hadn't quite gotten used to walking again yet. (I collapsed on my way to the bathroom, a few hours before.)

Their rooms were adjacent to each other at the opposite end of the hall. I peered through the glass overlooking Winnie's room. She was hooked up to various tubes and machines. She was breathing slowly. Sadness swept over me from seeing her in that state. I didn't stay long. The nurse pushed me over to Bryce's room. He was out cold. Apparently, he hadn't said a word to anyone since we arrived. The only person he would talk to was his little sister, despite her being in a coma. They said he visited me a few times the first two days but stopped. I gritted my teeth. He had every reason to be mad at me. If I were him, I would be too.

I asked to be brought back to my room shortly after that. My journey- it wasn't supposed to start off like this. It was supposed to be fun and full of harrowing adventures with my Pokemon. I should've had my first gym badge by now. More importantly, I should have had another Pokemon. Instead I was already in the hospital, not having done anything spectacular as of yet. Worst of all, I was full of regret. That should've been saved until way later in my adventure.

When I got back into my room, I decided to go through my backpack. I was convinced that my bag had been the target of ghost Pokemon wanting to play a joke on me. That was really the only way I could explain it having washed up on shore with me. I tossed my bag aside after I pulled out the strange music box that had wound up in my bag. Whom did it belong to? It definitely wasn't mine. I brushed my fingers across the Braille engraved on the top. Whenever I got out of here, I would have to look up the Braille alphabet to decipher it. Maybe it was the name of the person it belonged to.

I opened the box and a peaceful melody flooded the room. I set it on the nightstand beside my bed and laid my head into the pillow.

"Oh, you're already awake," The nurse I had met the day before said as she walked into the room. I glanced away from the television for a brief moment and gave her a slow nod. I was curious about what people thought had happened to Royal Johto. A lot of them were off. A few people speculated that ship was stranded at one of the unpopulated Whirlpool Islands. _But how do you miss a ship as big as a Wailord? _Others thought that the ship had been a target of pirates. It made a little sense. _But they were clearly out to sink the ship. _And a good majority of people thought that it was a government cover up. They said something about the ship holding a new weapon of sorts. I lost interest in that one rather quick. Another thought that the ship had been attacked by one of the nearby region's sub. _Sure, if a Dragonite could be considered a sub. _I turned my attention back to the television with Wiz lying on my stomach, still snoring away. "Well then. I've come to tell you that the police are coming and question you in a bit."

My head snapped in her direction. If there was one thing I couldn't have, it was the police questioning me. It made sense though that I would be questioned. Bryce had taken a shock-induced vow of silence only talking to his sister. Winnie was still in coma. And I was the only one that could shed some light on how we had sustained such injuries. Hopefully they weren't smart enough to put two and two together and figure that we had been on the ship.

But I couldn't do it. Either way, if I ran away from the hospital or stayed and let them question me, it would but my identity in jeopardy. _I don't want to go home. _

"Okay," I said with a straight face. The nurse smiled at me before disappearing behind the door. As soon as she closed the door, I yanked the IV from my arm and tossed it to the side. I picked up Wiz, who was pretty miffed at being woken up unceremoniously, and returned him to his ball. I slipped out of bed, made my way rather wobbly over to the bathroom, and proceeded to get dressed. I was a bit peeved that my favorite clothing had been torn to pieces.

I pulled the hospital gown off. My chest was covered in in scabs. My belly was in even worse condition. Bandages were wrapped around and there was a visible spot of blood in the area I had been poisoned. _I need to take it easy for a while. _Which would be a lot easier said than done. I wouldn't be able to stop off at the Pokemon Center since that was the most likely place they would search for me at. I probably had enough time to make it the Pokemon Mart and stock up on some items before heading off to the Safari Zone.

I fished through my bag and pulled out a pair of blue jeans, a black zip up hoodie, and a striped white and black shirt. I pulled my clothes on with a lot of difficulty. Every time I moved, my side would explode with pain. It took me much longer than I would've liked to get dress.

Getting out of the hospital had been easy enough. All of the doctors and nurses were preoccupied with other patients so they didn't bat a single eyelash at me. I put on a façade to hide my pain. It was pretty simple. I almost looked like there was nothing wrong with me. But under those layers of clothes I was sporting some serious, if not, possibly fatal injuries. I checked out of the hospital and was on my way in no time at all.

I wobbled down the relatively crowded streets of Cianwood City. It had changed a lot since the last time I visited. I was probably six or seven when my parents brought me here for vacation. I was sure that I had family here- if they hadn't relocated after the whole fiasco with Team Rocket. The last time I was here, there was barely anything here. But now, it was a bustling city with skyscrapers, like the ones in Nimbasa and Castelia City. I almost didn't recognize the place.

By the time I finally made it to the Pokemon Mart, I was sweating waterfalls. I hoped that it was because it was hot outside and not because I was putting too much strain on myself.

The reddish brown-headed employee stared at me strangely, as I staggered over to a shelf of various kinds of Pokemon food. I grabbed a few packs of pecha berry flavored Pokemon food since that was the kind I was certain Wiz liked, and tossed them into a carrying basket I had grabbed on the way in. I disappeared behind another shelf, breaking the line of sight between the employee and me.

I found bandages and other medical supplies for both humans and Pokemon in the back of the store. I grabbed all the items, from bandages to gauze pads, I thought I would need and tossed them into the basket.

As much as I didn't want to have any sort of communication with the employee whose nametag read "Roswell", it was the only way I'd be able to get Pokeballs as well as Potions since they were stocked behind the counter. Most likely to discourage stealing.

I emptied the basket of items onto the counter.

"Anything else?" He asked, still eyeing me a bit wearily. I didn't blame him either. I probably looked like I was about to fall out on the floor.

"Yeah," I replied. My voice came out hoarse. I cleared my throat before continuing on, "Give me… ten Pokeballs, three Super Potions, and two revives."

He rather reluctantly turned around to gather the items off of the wall behind him. "Uh… you are aware it's 90 something degrees outside, right?" He asked, placing the Super Potions onto the counter.

"I'm aware," I said, tapping impatiently on the counter.

"…Just making sure," He said, as he collected the remaining items.

The silence was almost unbearable as he scanned the items, slowly.

"The total is 57.96," He said putting the items into two separate bags.

I pulled out the money and handed it over to "Roswell", who in turn put it in the cash register and gave me the change.

"Thank you," He said with what appeared to be a genuine smile. "Have a nice day… and take off that sweater before you suffer from a heat stroke…"

"Meh," I rolled my eyes as I took the bags and went on my way.

As soon as I got outside, I peeled off my sweater, glancing back into the store to make sure "Roswell" was not watching me, and tied it around my waist.

_Now off to the Safari Zone, _I thought, looking at the mountain range ahead.

* * *

><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>Dear Arceus, what's it been like two months? My writer's block is gone! Suddenly, while I was playing White Knight Chronicles (which actually is a real suckish game and I don't recommend to anyone), it just went away and I had a bunch of ideas for my two main fics. Joyous occasion! I'm thinking about getting a beta reader, (since I'm not used to writing in past tense) so if anyone is interested, send a PM my way.

A big thanks to Y-ko, Ocean Spiral, Apples Who Dance With Oranges, and Something dictionary related for reviewing.

**Next Chapter: **There's no worse news than finding out that there are regulations for traveling in the Cianwood Mountain Range.


	8. Smooth Operator

**Chapter Eight: Smooth Operator**

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><p><em>"My head's in the clouds but at least I'm trying."<em>

_-Oasis (The Shock of the Lightning)_

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><p>I received the worst possible news as soon as I tried to enter Cianwood Range. Trainers with less than three badges without traveling companions couldn't pass through the range alone. Trainers with no badges traveling with at least two other people carrying 2 badges <em>could<em> pass through. At least that's what the Ranger standing guard by the cave entrance told me. Unfortunately, I had neither of those.

"Can't you make one exception?" I pleaded. I was ready to get down on my knees and beg if need be.

"No means no, kid," the ranger snapped, turning her head away from me.

"Come on!" I whined. "I need to get to the Safari Zone!"

"Yeah, and there's a raging Steelix lurking the caves. We don't want anymore bodies on our hands. The league should be coming to fix this mess any day now. And if you want to go through so badly, why don't you find yourself some traveling companions?" she hissed.

The idea seemed plausible enough. But then again, I was a magnet for disaster and the incident on Royal Johto only backed up that theory even more.

"So scram before I call the cops," she hissed.

And that was all it took for me to abandon my plan to go to the Safari Zone.

I turned on my heels and started back towards the hill I had come over to get here.

I needed that fire Pokemon. I really did. There was no way in hell, according to Bryce's little hints back on the ship, that I would be able to take out this "Jasmine" person's steel Pokemon with just Wiz. There was also no way I was throwing him into a losing battle. I had to get off my high ponyta and find a group of people that would take a newbie along with them to the Safari Zone. That was a lot easier said then done.

As if on cue, two trainers, much, much younger than I, bounded down the hill. Both were young girls, and from the lack of dirt on their clothes, I figured they were newbies just like me. They giggled so much I almost felt inclined to stick my foot out in front of them and send them tumbling down the hill. _Almost. _

"Excuse me," I asked in the most polite voice I could muster up as I stepped in front of the giggling psychopaths. That immediately made them shut up.

"What do you want?" they asked defensively.

"I was won-" I started to say, but one of the girls decided to speak out of turn cutting me off.

"Bet he's some kind of pedophile," she hissed.

"W-What? No. I ju-" I tried to explain myself, but they wouldn't have any of it.

"Eww," said the other, stepping away from me.

"Get away from us, freak!" The first girl shrilled and shoved me to the ground. I tumbled to the ground, scraping my hands in the process. The two of them took off passed me and ran straight to the Pokemon Ranger. _Was the pushing really necessary?_

Attempt number one failed horribly.

I made a note not to ask anymore giggling ten-year olds or for that matter, any ten-year olds.

The next group that came over the hill were two boys and two girls, probably around my age, if not older. They all wore expensive looking clothing, and like the girls before them, they didn't have a single speck of dirt on them. I figured maybe they had just come from the Pokemon Center or something. But as soon as the male opened his mouth to say something to one of his companions, I found that they were rich kids, probably from Vermillion City.

"Excuse me," I said, stepping in front of the group. They all immediately stopped and looked at me like I had tentacles growing out of my head. No one said anything for the longest moment. The blonde girl to the left was the first to say something.

"Maybe if we stay quiet it'll go away," she whispered to her brunette friend beside her. I hoped to Arceus that she wasn't referring to me as the "_it_".

Another thirty something seconds passed. I took this as my opportunity to speak before they referred to me as an _it_ again.

"I was wondering if I could tag along with your group until we reach the Safari Zone," I asked.

They stared at me like I had broken some sort of sacred vow. Then they started to laugh so hard I thought for a split second that they were going implode from the pressure or pee themselves.

"Oh Arceus, good one," the taller of the boys howled as he wiped away his tears.

They walked passed me, roaring with laughter towards the Pokemon Ranger, leaving me standing on the dirt path asking myself what had just happened.

Attempt number two failed also.

I failed probably about ten more times before saying screw it and plopping down on the side of the road to eat my lunch and change my bandages. Most of them had said they didn't want to look after a newbie. I was perfectly capable of looking after myself… sort of… Not really. I only had Wiz and I didn't particularly know what Pokemon lurked the dark caves of the Cianwood Range. Of course, that worked me up in a mini panic, thinking that maybe a Tyranitar lurked inside. Others didn't seem comfortable with letting some random trainer tag along with them. For all they knew, I could be a thief or any number of other things. Some even thought I was asking them for a battle. Of course, I had to lie and say that I wasn't a trainer yet and that I needed help getting to the Safari Zone and all that other jazz, which brought me back to point one. It was so frustrating.

When I started to eat, I realized, I didn't want to eat. I didn't even want to change my bandages. What I wanted to do was find all those trainers that had laughed at me and what not and just heave them off the side of the cliff. I wanted to go to the Safari Zone. One way or another I would get to there, even if I had to sneak in at night and through the treacherous range all by myself. Of course, I immediately thought that was such an outrageous idea.

And I gave up…again.

I decided I had enough disappointment for one day and got to my feet. I'd try again tomorrow. Maybe. If my self esteem could recover that fast from the constant letdown.

So I started back down the path towards the city. Just as I passed over the hill, I saw another group of overly peppy trainers. I immediately ducked out of the way and continued on through the brush. Arceus forbid another trainer tried to challenge me. I was angry and I might've just accepted the challenge to blow off some steam.

I'd be staying at the Pokemon Center tonight. If the police found me, then I figured, so be it. My side was pulsing with pain and I was in dire need of somewhere to lie down.

It took me a little over an hour to get to the Pokemon Center. Despite it being half passed noon, it was packed. I maneuvered my way through the crowd of trainers up to the very front. The nurse at the receptionist desk seemed to be incredibly stressed- I figured it was the best time to ask without her giving me a second glance. She took my Pokedex, punched in a few buttons, and handed me my Dex and a card key to room 205. The nurse informed me that I would be sharing a room with two other guys, since the other rooms were already full. I didn't exactly like the idea of sharing a room, but I wasn't about to complain. A free room was a free room.

I reached the room minutes later. I tapped the card against the strange mechanism outside and it clicked open. I pushed open the door only to find myself staring at the end of a hitmonchan's fist.

A strange noise, that to this day I still believe it wasn't human, escaped my mouth and instinctively I backed away, almost tripping over my foot in the process. The fighting Pokemon advanced on me and I scooted away, only to have my back hit the door behind me.

"Carol, that's no way to treat our new roommate," said a male voice from somewhere within room 205. He had a heavy Jothoian accent. A tall slim boy stepped into the door frame and the Pokemon backed down. He had medium length black hair that was neatly combed to the side. His eyes were a vibrant blue color. He wore a white long sleeve shirt under a thin black vest. To match he wore a pair of black slacks and black sneakers. "Sorry about that," the boy said patting his hitmonchan on the back.

"Uh…" was the only thing I could think of to say after nearly becoming a hitmonchan's punching bag.

"Come on in," he said. But he didn't give me a chance to respond before his hand clamped down onto my shoulder and he lead me into the room.

The room was a bit dull. There were three beds, two of which were bunk beds and one was off to the side. I noticed that there had to be two people already inside since there were two carrying packs. One on the top bunk and one on the bottom. They were separated by a single window looking out into the city and a small nightstand with a lamp a top it. That's all there was. I had expected there to be a bathroom of some sorts, but there wasn't.

"This is our temporary home," the boy said, motioning at the room with his free hand.

I was a little disappointed in the Pokemon Center. From all the shows I had watched about Pokemon Trainers I had assumed that the Pokemon Center rooms were for the most part nice. But then again, why keep it extremely nice when peppy ten-year old kids were just going to mess it up with all their dirt?

I simply nodded in response because I had no clue of how to respond to the boy.

"Quiet one, are we? That's all fine and dandy. My brother and you should get along well then," the boy said letting go of my shoulder. "Kid hates everything that breathes."

Another nod.

I certainly knew how to make things awkward.

"Well… you can have that bed," the boy pointed to the single bed. "Well, c'mon Carol. Let's go grab a bite to eat." With that, he turned his back to me and left me in the room alone.

I shut the door behind him and plopped down on my temporary bed. I pulled my t-shirt up a bit. The bandages looked better than I had expected after all the walking around I had done, there was still blood on it, but only a bit. I unwrapped the bandages, and pulled off the gauze pad. I disposed of it in a nearby garbage can. The stitches were a bit off and I hoped that it was nothing to worry about. I replaced the old bandages with new ones and pulled my shirt back down. I flopped my head back on the pillow, closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The next time I awoke, it was to the screaming of my temporary roommates. I let my eyes focus on the ceiling above, before checking to see what was going on. I looked over at them through half lidded eyes. Hitmonchan Boy was there, as was the boy he mentioned earlier to be his brother, and a random girl.

The brother looked almost like his brother, aside from the fact he had brown hair and brown eyes, and a slightly bigger crooked nose. It looked like he had broken it at some point, and the doctor didn't do a good job of realigning it. He was shorter than his companions, but that certainly didn't stop the cusses from flowing out of his mouth. He was yelling at the girl, who was in turn yelling back.

The girl had auburn colored hair that was tied up in a high ponytail. Her brown eyes flashed with anger and for a moment I thought she was going to tackle the boy and start wailing on him. I hoped she had enough self control not to.

Hitmonchan Boy stood in between them with a goofy look on his face. Something was telling me that them arguing happened quite frequently.

"No!" The girl shrieked. "We are not leaving the island just cause your stupid Pokemon weren't strong enough to take out Chuck."

"Yeah, we are," the boy spat back. "You got your damn badge, so what the hell's the problem?"

"We're going to the Safari Zone," she hissed. "You said back on the ferry that the three of us would go to the Safari Zone after we got our badges."

The boy scowled. "After _we _got _our _badges. Did I get my badge?"

"No bu-"

"Exactly. Now shut the hell up."

The girl made a move for the boy, but Hitmonchan Boy wasn't having any of it. He pushed her back.

"Be nice, Joshua," he glared at his brother.

The two of them continued arguing for the longest time. Normally I wouldn't have gotten myself involved in trivial matters, but I really wanted to go to the Safari Zone despite having given up three or more times.

"Did you guys say you were going to the Safari Zone?" I asked innocently.

"No-" Joshua started to say, but Hitmonchan Boy and Anger Management Girl immediately hushed him.

"Yes we are," the two chimed.

"May I tag along?" I yawned sitting up.

"What? Hel-"Joshua started to complain.

"Of course you can," Anger Management Girl said with a sly grin. I had a sneaking suspicion that she was only agreeing to let me tag along to be spiteful. That was perfectly fine with me, as long as she didn't assault me on the way to the park. All I needed was a broken nose to add to my collection of injuries. I made a bunch of mental notes not to anger her.

After the argument dissipated, Hitmonchan Boy formally introduced his party to me. His name was in fact not Hitmonchan Boy, but rather Caleb. He was a veteran trainer with eight badges. The only reason he was traveling about now was because he wanted to make sure his step brother, Joshua, didn't get killed for mouthing off to the wrong people. Joshua was Joshua. He had an extremely foul mouth. I could see why Caleb was around to watch over him. Anger Management Girl's name was Amy. She, despite having almost beaten him up, was best friends with Joshua. She had lived down the street from the two brothers back in Blackthorn City. She got her Pokemon around the same time Joshua did, and decided to tag along with them. She had four badges, while Joshua only had three. Apparently Chuck, Cianwood City's Gym Leader, had taken down his Pokemon with little effort. And considering that I had to challenge him soon, that sent me into another mini panic. Amy bragged and said her Pokemon had taken his down easily. Chuck was almost excited to give her the badge.

"Shut up," Joshua snapped. "No one was asking you."

"_Actually_, he was," Caleb pointed out earning a glare from his step brother.

And my luck was looking up… sort of.

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><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>Wait. What? Is this an _update_? By golly gee, yes it is. After listening to hours and hours of _Oasis _and reading Afroshock's _Pokemon 0_, I suddenly got in the mood to write again. I even took the time to outline most of the story. I'm still not even sure what the main character's team is going to be yet.

**Next Chapter: **Beware of territorial Steelix.


	9. Panic is On the Way

**Chapter Nine: Panic is On the Way**

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><p>"<em>Slide away and give it all you got."<em>

_-Oasis (Slide Away)_

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><p>"Get the hell up," was Joshua's idea of a wake up call.<p>

I sat up, wiping the sleep from my eyes. Judging from the lack of light in the room, it had to be some time before seven. I slid out of the bed and grabbed some clothes out of my nearby pack and headed to the bathroom. But not before crashing into the closed door of the room, which caused Joshua to run his mouth off once again.

After I was done showering and changing my bandages in the locker styled bathroom down the hall, I headed back in the room. This time Caleb was packing his stuff and informed me that Amy and Joshua had already gone downstairs to eat breakfast. He said I should join them, so I did.

The lobby was pretty much empty for the most part. There were two nurses, Amy, Joshua, and four other trainers. There was a strange giant pink Pokemon sitting next to Joshua. It was so cute, yet looked like something that would kill with a smile on its face. It had large round blue eyes and a little dab of white fluff in the middle of its head. It was using its tiny little arms to sneak food off of Joshua's plate. If Joshua realized this, he made no attempt to stop it.

"Is that your Pokemon?" I asked, sitting down next to Amy, who had a Gloom out next to her. The only reason I remembered her Pokemon's species was because back in Pacifidlog Town, the woman next door would let me play with her Gloom.

"Yeah. You got a problem?" Joshua glared at me. The Pokemon copied its trainer. Whatever this Pokemon was, I was afraid of it.

"Nothing," I immediately averted my eyes elsewhere. Speaking of Pokemon, Wiz was probably starving, so I tossed his ball on the seat next to me, and out came my sleeping cotton ball.

"The hell is that?" I heard Joshua ask as I carefully picked up Wiz and put him in my lap. Arceus forbid Joshua saw him go into one of his crying fits. I would probably never hear the end of it.

"Wiggly, _Wiggly_!" said his Pokemon. I was certain that if his Pokemon had a translator, it would have a foul mouth too.

"This is Wiz. He's my cottonee," I said, stuffing some of the pancakes the nurse had placed in front of me into my mouth.

"Oh! I've never seen one of those around here before," Amy said leaning closer to get a better look at my Pokemon.

"That's because they aren't native to any region beside Unova," I heard Caleb say, causing me to look up. He sat down beside his brptjer who was fumbling around with his Pokedex. "How'd you get one of those?"

"I caught him," I replied.

"Huh? Really, where?"

"In Pinwheel Forest."

"Ah, so you're from Unova," he rubbed his chin. "That's funny. You don't have their accent. Now that I think about it, sheesh… Your accent is like a mess of the regions."

"Just say he speaks funny," Joshua snapped.

Caleb had a point. In the past I had tried to imitate different accents that I now had my own unique one. Of course I had an excuse for it.

"I've lived in a lot of places," I explained. Simple, but believable.

"Ah, right. Business parents?" Caleb asked.

"You could say that," I replied shortly before stuffing another piece of pancake into my mouth.

"Got anymore Unova Pokemon?" Joshua asked, putting his Pokedex away. I tried not to look at him because his Pokemon was really starting to freak me out more than I already was.

"No, he's my only Pokemon," I replied in a low voice.

I expected them to tell me that a newbie like me couldn't come along anymore, but it never happened. But what did happen, was Wiz waking up in the face of the creepy Pokemon. He made a strange noise that may or may not have been a gasp and wrenched himself out of my grip. He fluttered to the table behind me.

"Uh… Wiz?" I called out. His eyes were still focused on the pink Pokemon, who I couldn't tell if it was staring back at him or enjoying the pancakes it was still stealing off of Joshua's plate.

"Uh… what's he doing?" Amy whispered.

"I…don't…know," I whispered back. I really had no clue what he was doing and why.

"I think he thinks Joshua's Wigglytuff is a threat," Caleb finally said after a long period of stand-off. All of us turned away from Wiz to look at Joshua's Pokemon. The Pokemon just stared at us with its large creepy eyes.

"_Hell yes it's a threat," _I thought, clenching my fork. I was tempted to say it out loud but I didn't want to risk pissing them off and then having no one to travel to the Safari Zone with.

"Looks completely harmless," I said instead.

Joshua nearly spit out his pancakes at this. "That's a bloody lie and you know it."

And then all hell broke loose. Suddenly leaves erupted from my cottonee's body and whistled by my face at an amazing speed, straight towards Wigglytuff. Wigglytuff, despite its docile appearance, had most likely been expecting the attack. It flipped over the table, causing food and drinks alike to fly across the room or hit Amy and myself. Someone had left the cap to the syrup unscrewed, and as a result I was now drenched in the sticky substance. I had a nagging feeling my food hadn't gone too far either.

"What the hell, Wiggles?" Joshua screamed.

But Wiggles, yeah I know so unique, wasn't listening. It was bunkered down behind the table.

I was in such a daze that I didn't realize that Amy was screaming at me to return my Pokemon or that the nurses were having a heart attack.

Leaves stabbed into the table like daggers. The other trainers that were in the room with us fled in different directions. I didn't blame them either.

"Wiz!" I yelled, panicked.

"Cottoneee!" Wiz shrieked from his spot on the table.

"_What the hell happened to my crybaby?" _I couldn't help but think, as I was fumbling around for his Pokeball before Wiggles decided to fight back. I managed to hit expand the ball, and tried to zap him back into the ball. But Wiz, boy did he have other plans. He grabbed a nearby tray with his leafy hands and used it to deflect the light.

I stood there mouth ajar for the longest time.

Joshua, however, was trying a more forceful approach. He tried pulling Wiggles to freedom, but it too was being rebellious. It clung to the table with its little tiny arms.

"All right," I heard Caleb say over the various screams from within the room. I turned to look at him and saw that he was throwing a Pokeball out. With an explosion of white light, out came the hitmonchan that had attacked me the day before.

It grabbed hold of Wiz's fluff, just as Wiggles decided that it had enough of playing on the defensive and opened its mouth. The most foul noise escaped its mouth causing me, and everyone else to cover our ears. Thankfully, Amy's Gloom head butted it to shut it up. Wiz wiggled around in the hitmonchan's grip. I took this chance to return him, as did Joshua.

"Yo… that was crazy," Joshua was the first to say anything out of the group.

After I recovered from nearly having my ear drums popped, I went over to the nurses and apologized profusely. I told them that Wiz normally wasn't like that. _Seriously. Why did he attack like that?_

"Wiggles…" Joshua sighed, staring down at his Pokemon's Pokeball.

"That thing creeps out every Pokemon it comes in contact with. Why do you think Chuck's Poliwrath went mankeyshit after it saw it," Amy hissed, still trying to get the syrup off of her shirt.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized to Joshua about ten times.

"I didn't expect Wiggles to turn over the damn table. Fuck. I want my pancakes," Joshua complained, minimizing Wiggle's Pokeball, before going off to clean up the mess our Pokemon had made.

I didn't want to admit that I was impressed by Wiz. I mean sure, he had been disobedient, but he had never looked so determined to take out anything our short period of being together. I was so proud to be his trainer, despite the fact he had nearly destroyed the Center in the process.

I helped Joshua clean up the mess. Wiz's leaves were harder than I had expected to get out of the table. By the time we were finished my fingers were covered in little leaf cuts.

After Amy and I changed out of our syrup soaked clothing, the four of us headed for Cianwood Range. Joshua was surprisingly quiet. Though, he didn't hesitate to put his two cents in.

"Don't worry about Wiggles or Wiz," Caleb told me as we walked over the hill just before the Cianwood Range entrance. "Wiggles really does scare every Pokemon it comes in contact with. We dunno why though."

"Wiggles is just so badass that they can't handle it," Joshua said from behind us. I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.

The four of us got passed the Ranger without much of a hassle. Which was great. I was once again on my path to being a trainer, and sheesh, had I taken a lot of detours.

"If I trip over another geodude," Joshua hissed, pointing his flashlight at the ground rather than in front of us.

For some reason the geodude had all buried themselves in the ground by the exit. One of them had the guts to come up while Joshua was stepping on it and it sent him off of his feet.

"You hear about those kids that were killed by that wild Steelix?" Amy asked no one in particular.

"Stupid kids probably wandered into its territory," Joshua said shortly before stumbling over yet another geodude and going into another one of his cussing fits. They took a bit of getting used to, but once you did, you'd realize just how funny the kid was, and just how easy it was to make him angry.

I saw a light ahead and I'd never been so happy to do so. As soon as I stepped out into the light, however, I almost wished I hadn't. In order to get across to the second cave we had to make our way over a rather unstable looking wooden bridge. _"Ah shit," _were my first thoughts. It certainly didn't help that the distance to the raging waves below was about the same as when I'd jumped off of Royal Johto. Which I still wasn't sure how I survived. I heard somewhere once that hitting water at a high enough speed could break almost every bone in your body. Yet, I was almost unscathed. _Almost._

Joshua walked across the planks like he'd done it a million times. Next went Amy. She gripped tightly onto the ropes beside her as she maneuvered across. When she finally did make it to the other side, she let out a sigh of relief. I was next.

"_Don't look down,"_ I told myself as I put my foot on the first plank.

"Hurry the hell up," called out Joshua.

"Shut up," Amy snapped punching him in the shoulder. "Some of us are actually afraid of plummeting 100 feet below into ice cold water and possibly breaking every bone in our body."

"Not helping," I muttered, still making my way across. I tried to think of happy things, but the thoughts became twisted half way through them, so I stopped thinking about them entirely. My body shook with fear. You'd think that after hoping off the side of a cruise ship that I'd would've gotten over my fear, but no. If anything that made it worse. Then finally when I was about to abandon all hope, I reached the other side.

Joshua, of course, started to applaud. I rolled my eyes at him.

The next cave was pretty straightforward. Nothing remotely interesting happened. In fact, the cave was devoid of all Pokemon. The others didn't seem to think this was a problem, so I didn't let myself worry about it much. I should have.

We decided to relax outside of the third cave and eat lunch. Joshua went off elsewhere to feed his team, since it was almost guaranteed that Wiz would try to attack Wiggles again. Amy joined him, leaving Caleb and I alone on the side of the cliff. Caleb let out his Hitmonchan and I let out Wiz. Wiz looked up at me with blinking beady eyes.

"Hungry?" I asked him, as he fluttered into my lap.

"Nee!" He replied enthusiastically.

I fed him some pecha berry Pokefood, which he ate rather greedily. I couldn't help but glance over at Caleb and Carol. We'd been sitting there for almost thirty minutes and he hadn't sent out any of his other Pokemon. He said he had eight badges, so where were his other Pokemon? I wanted to ask him about it, but I figured it wasn't any of my business.

"Nee!" cried Wiz.

I glanced down at him to see that he had finished his food. He held his leafy arm out expectantly. I looked at the bottle and then back at him. "You're gonna be a fat Whimsicott if you keep this up, you know that right?"

"Cotton," Wiz's eyes narrowed.

I laughed a bit and handed him more food.

Before I finished eating my cereal bar, Amy and Joshua came from around the bend looking rather terrified. Amy was carrying an additional pack. I didn't know what they were so scared about at first, until I saw the smear of fresh blood on the bag.

Caleb went into protective older brother mode almost instantly. "What happened?" he demanded, getting to his feet.

"I-It-" Joshua started to say, but trailed off. It was weird seeing him uncertain of himself despite only having known him for less than a day.

"It… it was there when we went to go feed our Pokemon… Wiggles found it." Amy said, voice shaky.

"Shit," Caleb swore. "We'd better hurry up and get out of here. Whatever did that can't have gone too far."

I got my feet, holding tightly onto Wiz. Wiz was still eating, despite the news that we had just heard. I wasn't particularly as scared as I should've been either. I guess I thought that maybe the thing had gone off and was eating the trainer and wouldn't be back for a while.

Caleb kept Carol out with us for protection just in case whatever was out there tried to mess with us. It didn't make me feel safe, but I figured it was better than some creepy Wigglytuff.

"You think it's that Steelix?" Amy asked as we hurried through the next cave.

"I dunno, but we're not about to stick around and find out," Caleb replied pushing us along.

Joshua hadn't spoken a single word since he came back with Amy. I understood how he felt. The first time I had ever seen human blood was when my parents were murdered in front of me. I was in shock for days on end, until I realized that I wasn't dreaming and that my parents were really gone. With a little time, Joshua would get over it. Or at least I hoped.

About an hour or two later, the four of us emerged from the third cave. My legs ached, but I wasn't about to be the person that suggested we stopped to rest when we were probably being stalked by a killer Steelix.

"All right, we have two more caves left, then we should be home free, if I remember correctly. This next one is the longest of the bunch. Should take us about three hours minimum to get through," Caleb explained.

An hour in, things began to go horribly wrong.

A blood curdling roar echoed the cave. Everything around us shook violently. Pieces of rock fell from the ceiling at hit us. I covered Wiz as best I could.

"Not gonna be the one to say this but… I think we should get the hell out of here," were the first words Joshua had spoken since finding the pack.

The rest of us nodded in silent agreement.

Suddenly the earth beneath us began to rumble. Amy clung onto my arm, while I held onto Wiz for dear life. Carol apparently anticipated the attack and tackled the four of us to the ground. Wiz flew out of my hands as I hit the ground. Sure enough, the ground exploded where we all had once been standing. Rock flew in every direction. A decent sized rock hit Caleb in the head rendering him unconscious. He fell to the ground like a lifeless doll. That's when I realized how much trouble we truly were in.

I looked over at the Steelix. Around its mouth were dark splotches of blood and what I later determined to be a piece of someone's intestines. Its blood red eyes were filled with rage. We had unknowingly trespassed on its territory and we were gonna pay.

Amy's screams knocked me back into reality. Joshua was beside his brother, shaking his unconscious body, pleading for the older boy to get up. I looked around for Wiz.

My heart sunk when I saw where he was. Wiz was standing protectively in front of Joshua and his brother, and Carol.

"Cottonee!" Wiz cried out.

Steelix seemed slightly amused by my Pokemon's effort to protect the other trainers. It made a motion with its tail and slapped my fluff ball across the cave. Wiz let out a panicked scream. As did I.

We were going to die if someone didn't do something and quick.

Steelix advanced on Joshua and company. I dropped my pack onto the floor. I picked up the largest rock I could find and tossed it at the Pokemon. To anyone else I may have looked courageous, but I was so scared. Wiz was out there somewhere alone, Caleb was unconscious, Joshua and Amy were paralyzed with fear. Someone had to think clearly. That person was me.

Steelix turned its large metal head towards me, eyes flickering with rage.

"Come and get me, dammit," I said, trying to hide the fear in my voice. I turned and took off in the opposite direction. My ears pounded as I ran through the darkness from the large metal snake-like creature. The wall to the cave exploded in front of me sending me off of my feet. A piece of rock nicked my cheek as I feel over. I wasn't on the ground for long, for I quickly dove passed Steelix and climbed over the rocks.

The monster let out a roar of frustration, but that didn't stop me. I had to lead it away from the others. Especially Wiz. Wiz was my Pokemon. I had to protect him. The logic was a bit messed up, but it made perfect sense to me.

Once again the cave wall in front of me exploded, but this time, I was expecting it. I turned into a narrow passage, expecting the Steelix to stop since it was far too big to fit. Instead, the sections on its body that had the points begun to spin and it crashed into the passage, tearing rock from the wall allowing it access through the passage. I was tired. It seemed like Steelix knew I was too and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to me. I had to keep going. I just had to.

With my newfound energy, I pushed onward.

And then suddenly I felt a falling sensation. There was a reason for that. I had unknowingly run straight off the side of a ledge. My panic screams filled the cave as I plummeted to the darkness below. The last thing I saw was Steelix's red eyes glittering in the darkness.

* * *

><p><strong>Aeroga: <strong>Bam. Two chapters in one day.

**Next Chapter: **MC meets your friendly neighborhood ghost while trying to escape from Cianwood Range. He can't help but wonder, are the others still alive?


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